Alvin's voice saunters, caresses, and brings to life these 15 American folk songs. On tunes such as "East Virginia Blues" and "Maggie Campbell," he lets a rockabilly snarl sharpen his warm baritone, and on "Walk Right In" he leads us through swinging doors into a dusty Western dive. More often, he sings like a storyteller, his voice sounding the way a favorite old flannel shirt might feel when you put it on. The opening line of "Delia" and all of the grim and vivid "Murder of the Lawson Family" is delivered with the intimacy that marks Alvin's performances of his own material; unlike some singer/songwriters, he knows how to tap into the spirit of someone else's work as well as his own.

His guitar playing, like the accompaniment of his "Guilty Men" band, emphasizes feel over precision. When the inevitable "I hear that train a'comin'" line comes up, in "A Short Life of Trouble," he doesn't forget to bend a few mournful minor thirds, whistle-like, against the major chord. On songs like "What Did the Deep Sea Say" and "Engine 143," authenticity plays a role as well, as old-timey harmonies and a droning fiddle paint a picture of times and places long ago. Scotch/Irish inflections haunt the stark reading of "Texas Rangers," and the ghost of Howlin' Wolf prowls through the thumping groove of "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down."

Alvin's previous album, Blackjack David, is a very tough act to follow, as was King of California before that. But with Public Domain, Alvin once more does himself proud -- not by taking risks but by drinking from that well that sustains his own work and binds us to him as a nation of listeners.