Album Reviews : ** Dan Baird, “Buffalo Nickel,” American Recordings.

More ragged, good-time rock from the plain-spoken former Georgia Satellites singer--lots of heavy, cracklin’ guitar and howling sarcasm in the country-bumpkin mode. Baird is actually most effective on this second solo album at a slower pace, as on the soulful “Hell to Pay.” Not profound, exactly, but a sloppy good time.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).