Grant-Lee Phillips Virginia Creeper Zoë The new CD by this gifted singer-songwriter is a moving serenade in minor keys, a journey through melancholy.  It's also the best album yet by Phillips, whose body of work easily stands with that of the likes of Ryan Adams, Jay Farrar and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, who also toil on this side of the alt-country street.  Here, the music is stark with an eloquent simplicity – acoustic guitars and bass, a fiddle, uncluttered percussion - and it perfectly complements Phillips' poignant tales of lost love and colorful characters.  His lyrics have the ring of spontaneity, as if he's spinning a yarn around a campfire, and they're rich with a moody sense of place:  "Stroll through the crowd with a black mantilla, friend/While they're whisperin' like locusts in the grain" and "Oh, the slough winds all serpentine/Full of black delta peat/Yellow bronze grapes of muscadine/Growing wild and sweet" are but two examples of his vivid writing.  This wonderful album closes with a gorgeous reading of "Hickory Wind" by Gram Parsons, the alt-country god.  Incidentally, Rhino Records has just issued Storm Hymnal:  Gems From the Vault, a greatest-hits package from Phillips' previous band, Grant Lee Buffalo.  It's a good place to catch up on his earlier work. — Jim Fusilli

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