Record Rack

*** 1/2 Johnny Dowd, “Temporary Shelter,” KOCH. ** 1/2 Jim White, “No Such Place,” Luaka Bop. The term roots-rock usually suggests a wholesome communion with the primary colors of American music, the red, white and blue of country, blues and gospel. But when you poke around those roots, you might also come across things better buried.

For some artists, this kind of uncomfortable excavation is fuel for the creative fire. Both Johnny Dowd, a Texan in his early 50s who now runs a small moving company in Ithaca, N.Y., and Jim White, a younger singer from Pensacola, Fla., might be termed roots artists, forging their music from fundamental traditions and the pop forms they spawned. Their new albums show how differently these resources can be approached.

White’s second collection is like a slick piece of film noir, giving such genre touchstones as vengeful wronged women and abandoned cars an entertaining, superficial spin. Dowd’s fourth, on the other hand, is a grainy home movie, a disquieting document that might have been confiscated from an isolated homestead.

The music on “Temporary Shelter” sounds like something transmitted on some strange radio frequency from a lost world of surf music and garage-rock, Del Shannon lonesome-me pop and distorted twang.

“Metaphor is useless when you need a pair of gloves / To protect you from the violence of your father’s love,” Dowd sings, insisting on direct, close encounter with the messy cycles of cruelty that make his world turn. His deranged drawl takes some getting used to, but it has an inspiring opposite number in the pure, high responses of Kim Sherwood-Caso, a hairdresser in Ithaca. Together they discover pockets of comfort and dignity in the rubble of dysfunction.

White’s “No Such Place” is a breeze in comparison, though the subject matter often overlaps with Dowd’s. He’s more literary and calculated, allowing a safe distance between listener and characters. White, who plays the Mint on Friday, also has a feel for accessible touches, evoking the likes of Lyle Lovett and Chris Isaak and bringing in hip-hop and other contemporary touches.