With so many modern country rockers emulating ‘70s pioneers of the genre like the Eagles and CSN&Y, Steve Azar is a non-retro anomaly. "Crowded" kicks off his third album Indianola with a spacey wah-wah guitar and lyrical phrasing that grooves with very subtle hip-hop based rhyming over an organic dance beat played on real drums. It's a forward thinking kind of songwriting that pulls from non-twangy realms, but a weepy pedal steel and Azar's Steve Earlesque drawl are still unmistakably Americana. "Bluestune" may be a misnomer for this twang/funk hybrid, but who cares? You can dance to it and somebody's singing the kind of cartoonish falsettos that make the Bee Gees sound like Josh Turner. And if you like the sort of slow-burning country songs that would well accompany those long stretches of highway on road trips, check out the pretty little title track or the ambitiously titled "Highway 61" where Azar may be opining that all roads start and end with Dylan.