You get the impression that with a case a beer, a couple of joints and a half-tuned guitar, Bill Davis can write a Dash Rip Rock album. That’s not a knock on Country Girlfriend, the band’s latest; it’s more of a reflection of how effortless Dash albums sound. Jokes about booze, broads and bad behavior are second nature to him, and if one doesn’t catch you, there’s another wisecrack just moments away. Coffeehouse culture might be an easy target, but I still cracked up at the chorus to “Google This” the first time around. And since when has Dash laid off of easy targets?

Country Girlfriend also recalls Sonic Boom, which presented a softer, gentler Dash. This time, he plays three songs straight, the strongest being the love song, “The Only Star in Texas.” Davis accompanies himself delicately on an acoustic guitar on the John Preble-penned “Please Come to the Mardi Gras,” and he almost makes the song work. His performance is so sweet that you can almost get around the ungainly lines and easy rhymes, but only almost. You want it to work the same way the love ballad works because they suggest there’s something behind the ha-ha. Still, when you’ve made a career out of bad behavior, what does it matter if you drive granny to church once a month or give to the United Way?