Music legend and possible deity Johnny Cash once said, "Creative people have to be fed from the divine source. I have to get fed." Whatever you think Mr. Cash the Almighty was talking about, it's easy to agree that not just anyone can be a great musician. In a way, musicians have to be "blessed", or at least given enough high-quality inspiration to differentiate between even the simplest terms -- like "good" and "bad", or "treasure in disguise" and "waste of everyone's time".

I suppose that's a fairly dramatic way of looking at things, but that's what came to mind listening to Manic + Organic. Thompson even goes so far as to reference Cash on the playful "It's a Guy Thing". But while Manic + Organic might not get Thompson playing any historic gigs at local prisons, it's certainly turning heads, and with good reason.

Lyrically, Thompson is about sixty percent impressive; he'll write an empty line like "I swear / I never meant to say those things I said" and follow it up moments later with "I swear / I didn't mean to set this house on fire" ("Set This House on Fire") -- which is even better taken literally. He's much more optimistic than Cash, or even Nelson or Lynn, with upbeat contemporary numbers like "Metamorphic Blues" offsetting more somber selections like "Three Souls". He even takes time to show off a modern rock influence on "Turning on". Diversity is clearly on the table here, and it's a wonderful thing to hear.

But despite all of these positive attributes, I can't help but notice Manic + Organic feels a little cheesy. It's not just song titles like "It's a Guy Thing" or the too-sentimental-for-its-own-good "Buttonwillow"; there's something oddly family-fun about the whole thing, even though "The Ballad of Pierre and Mademoiselle Revisited"'s tale of love and loss gets a little macabre. It's effective, but it's not effective enough, and I think a great album would have had twelve dark songs and one happy one instead of the other way around. All that sunshine and love and dedication really gets on your nerves after a while.

However, as I said, Thompson provides a solid album that die-hard country fans should put some time into. This isn't your average million-dollar CMTV project, and believe you me, that's enough of a good thing for me.