While he often gets classed among the alt-country crowd, Grayson Capps is actually a natural blues-rocker hiding in the body of a college-educated folkie gone to seed. If that doesn’t tell you what you need to know about his 2008 album Rott ‘N’ Roll, check out the skewed bent of its song titles: “Big Black Buzzard,” “Fear Fruit Bearing Tree,” “Sock Monkey.” A feel for the more twisted aspects of rural American culture pervades this album, along with a taste for the swampier side of rock ‘n’ roll. Capps’ ability to combine lyric portraits of pungent characters with spiky guitars and stomping beats comes through in “Sun Don’t Shine On Willy,” “Big Ole Woman,” and “Gran Maw Maw.” Boozy, bittersweet tracks like “Ike” and “Psychic Channel Blues” are more sedate but no less convincing. “Arrowhead” and “Guitar” renew the artist’s links with traditional country, while “Bacon” and the aforementioned “Sock Monkey” churn in primal garage rock fashion. Capps’ whisky-throated, surprisingly sensitive vocals bring out the nuances in these hard-luck, odd-love tunes. Rott ‘N’ Roll is an aggressive, pleasingly off-kilter statement from an underrated bard of the downtrodden.