Growing up in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, Dan Colehour spent time playing in country, rock and even polka bands, so it’s perhaps no surprise that labeling his music is a bit of a challenge. And while most retailers have filed his debut album, “Straight to the Highway” (Carnival Records) in the darker corners of the country aisle, it’s difficult not to entertain the obvious comparison to the young, pre-Nebraska Bruce Springsteen. Look no further than the new music video for the album’s opening track, “Quarry Town,” where a roughened Colehour walks dusty country roads, is backlit by American flags, and of course, pursues the all-American love affair with the rusted-out pickup truck:

Although Colehour’s album debuted in 2004, his relative commercial disappearance cannot be reasonably attributed to a lack of critical acclaim. “Straight to the Highway” was written entirely by the artist, and was both produced and engineered by Mike McCarthy of Patti Griffin and Spoon fame. Also contributing to the ten-track album’s raw and edgy production is David Grissom, known for his work with the Dixie Chicks and John Mellencamp. Much of the Dixie Chicks’ “Taking the Long Way” and Mellencamp’s recent “Our Country” and “Life, Death, Love & Freedom” can be heard here, with Colehour’s sparse lyricism tackling the darker corners of Midwestern life head on. In “Quarry Town,” Colehour channels Springsteen’s “Youngstown” and “Born in the U.S.A.”:

In the name of God and country

We buried our friends in the ground

We never knew any better

In our quarry town

Although Colehour doesn’t achieve melodies as immediately catching as Springsteen (can you really blame him?), “Straight to the Highway” does not disappoint fans of the country rock genre with the undeniable promise of its production team. The tracks “Father’s Son” and “The Likes of Us” are prayers delivered to the Midwest at seventy miles an hour out a rolled-down window, and the stripped-down acoustics of “My America” meander like the Mississippi as the narrator rediscovers a sense of belonging in the land.

Colehour’s voice itself is a perfect fit with the album’s changing moods - raw and self-assured at its peaks, wounded with yearning in its valleys. The strength of his range is particularly apparent in “This Time,” a narrative on feeling trapped in small town America and, yes, the escape of the highway:

Just lie and listen to that engine burnin’

Turnin’ those four wheels just as fast as they can go

And roll down the window and you might just feel the morning

Blowing in from someplace that the likes of us will never know

Do yourself a favor and check out Dan Colehour’s “Straight to the Highway.” The album may not prove to be the needed commercial break he’s obviously deserving of, but if these ten tracks are any indication, this guy’s born to run.

Rating: 5/5