Despite the fact that he was signed during Nashville's most serious identity crisis, Jimmy Wayne may not be a "pure country artist" (whatever that phrase means anymore). But he does possess two things that the great singer/songwriters in any genre should: passion and honesty. Wayne writes edgy life-and-love songs that come from his own autobiography, much of it spent surviving a broken family and homelessness. His tunes are informed by influences ranging from Steve Earle to Daryl Hall to Don Henley. Wayne's darkness -- and it is considerable -- is tempered by the openness in the grain of his voice and his vulnerability. His youth is not ashamed to sing straight about the weight of his brokenness and yet his willingness to endure it, because love in any guise is better than its alternative. The album's first single, Stay Gone, is an invitation for the rest of us to remember our own experiences, despite his protagonist's plea to remain apart, out of sight, because of the pain. Paper Angel talks about the forgotten, the lost, the taken; children whom Wayne knows well; in fact, as the power chords and mandolin entwine around his reaching vocals and cascading acoustic guitar, we come to understand that he can understand that he can sing this way because he's been one of these children. When he sings the refrain, with more yearning and determination to convince than in a thousand Steve Earle songs, it's because he knows the other side: "Paper Angels/You're in my thoughts and prayers/No matter where you are remember God's right there/he's asking all of us to help take care/of paper angels everywhere."

1		After You
2		Are You Ever Gonna Love Me?
3		Stay Gone
4		Trespassin'
5		Paper Angels
6		You Are
7		She Runs
8		Just A Dream
9		Blue and Brown
10		I Love You This Much
11		You're The One I'm Talking To
12		The Rabbit