Cory Woodward sets out to prove himself with The Truth.

On The Truth, Cory Woodward exhibits some serious songwriting potential and owes as much debt to the Deep Delta Blues greats as he does Tom Waits. Those influence are merged together here more elegantly than ever and serve to cement Woodward’s already stellar reputation. The Truth is sequenced expertly and varied enough to stay interesting throughout the course of the record.

Its only flaw is that the majority of the material doesn’t stick as hard as it should, despite impressing on every listen. That’s not to say the record is devoid of memorable moments—they’re just not as frequent as songs of this caliber tend to be. Woodward is clearly a gifted songwriter and composer and it seems like he’s onto something and making steps in a new direction that is leading him to his best material yet. If he stays on pace, his next record should be tremendous.