Nikki Lane: Denim and Diamonds (New West)

If the title doesn't tell you this is a country album then you haven't been paying attention.

But 38-year old Nikki Lane out of South Carolina is one of those singer-songwriters a few generations removed from even the outlaw movement. She was born the year that Toto won album of the year at the Grammys and Men At Work were hailed as the best new artist.

Yes, a lot has happened in her lifetime and so on the sneering pop-rock title track we're not surprised when she announces, “you can't say shit, cause I'm going my way, livin' and dyin'”.

This is woman with something to say: the opener First High has her remembering wearing jeans tighter than Springsteen, having a shot at being the pageant queen but hanging out with the punks in the park and looking again for the thrill of that first high again.

Born Tough is another statement of intent to hang in there when life has let her down.

This is her territory and here, produced sympathetically by Josh Homme (Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal etc), she works off classic country-rock and pop-rock which is as close to throbbing New Wave with a country twist (think the Bangles from the South) as it is Tom Petty, Patti Scialfa's country-soul (Born Tough, Try Harder), Neko Case and the story-telling of country-rock (Black Widow). And then there's the acoustic Chimayo with its Mexican nuances.

In fact it is Nashville-based Lane's narratives – autobiographical or observational – which have you returning for lines like, “I was hell-bent on leaving town, so I hitched myself a trailer, packed the things I couldn't live without . . . things are different now, I don't feel the same when they call me by my own name”.

It might lack some real bite to match the lyrics in a few places but mostly Lane can boot these stories to life over Stones-lite riffing or a subtle soul setting.

Country, but country with attitude.