So Neil Young and Daniel Johnston had a baby (no, I don't know which of them was the mommy), and that baby is named Rodriguez and it just put out a very nice CD on Devil in the Woods. Really. Well, okay, maybe they didn't really have a baby, but the CD really does sound like the baby that Neil and Daniel might have had, if they had had a baby and that baby was a band. It's a pretty simple setup: mostly strummed guitar, groovy bass lines, low key drums, an organ now and again. Sort of mellow alterna-country-lounge -- lots of simple-sounding songs that aren't all that simple. The singing on Swing like a metronome is what really stands out, though -- it's sometimes gruff, sometimes sweet, sometimes reaching-for-and-not-quite-getting a high note, always sincere and never out of place or contrived. There's a certain sweet and warm rawness to these songs -- the sense that the players are giving all that they can give -- and it's not perfect, but wow, it's certainly good enough for me. A nice surprise.