Anthony Hamilton

Some soul singers have sung their joy — Sam Cooke and Stevie Wonder not least — and made their best art. But Anthony Hamilton comes from a bluesier tradition, with a lilting, earthbound voice that knows struggle, and he came with a masterwork in 2003's heavy Comin' From Where I'm From. His latest, Ain't Nobody Worryin,' is not as cheery an album as it sounds at first, despite overall smoother production and formulaic funky love on tracks such as "Southern Stuff" and "Sista' Big Bones." The title track is actually a warning against apathy in the face of suffering. And "Pass Me Over," the album's most effective and original blues, sounds like a harmless, breezy gospel number — though not as inky and infectious as Hamilton's 2003 radio hit "Charlene" — until you realize it's sung from the perspective of someone so far down that he's sleeping until Jesus comes back. Only the "Distant Lover"-ish "Change Your World" sounds wrong. Despite the song's message of transformation, the world needs Hamilton more for his guts than his croon.