I give Matt Angus credit for walking up to me during this year’s SXSW after reading my badge and asking questions about New Orleans. Rather than tell me his theories, he wanted to know what was going on and what he could do. So I’m positively inclined to Angus’ new album, but you don’t have to have met him to like it. The album has Tony Garnier and Larry Campbell from Bob Dylan’s recent touring band playing with him, grounding and coloring the songs with the sort of solidity and discretion you’d expect from Dylan sidemen. The songs, though, are the thing, and Angus comes off as the guy down the bar who, after a few beers, has a lot of smartass shit to say about politics, and at first it seems crackpot, but as he goes on, you realize he might not be as nutty as he sounds, and a basic, humane common sense is at the heart of his songs. He sings, “I think you’d have him arrested / if Jesus were at your door.”