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Dickie Lee Erwin sings and performs with his gospel bluegrass band the Altered Boys as well as his hard-country group the Dickie Lee Erwin Band. Texas Midnight Highway is firmly on the secular side of the equation, with a rough, blue-collar country sound driven by a powerful band anchored by producer and drummer Hunt Sales (noted for his work with David Bowie and Iggy Pop) and Erwin’s gruff tenor.

There are a few pop references in the arrangements — the clanging guitar/mandolin/organ chorus on “In Love Again” brings to mind Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May” -- but most of the playing sports a comfortable Texas Saturday night roughness. On the songwriting side, Erwin is versatile enough to craft folksy vignettes about down-but-not-quite-out loners such as “The Last Cowboy On Earth”, a Tex-Mex two-step about hard times and shady deals, and “Blackjack County Chain”, a bluegrass-flavored song that deals with the murder of a sadistic prison guard. Then there are confections such as “Candy Girl” and “Porcelain Doll”, tunes that wouldn’t sound out-of-place on commercial radio with a smoother singer and a less aggressive band behind them.

Erwin’s not a pretty boy and he’s not young, and the miles he’s traveled are evident in his singing, lending his words an authenticity that many of today’s prefab country outlaws can only pretend to possess.

Dickie Lee Erwin is a singer of the people and places suggested in his title track: Texas backyards full of high speeds, detours, and wrong turns, occasionally winding up in exactly the right place. His musical background mixes bluegrass, rock, and Texas honky tonk. Not quite as poetic or quite as original as Robert Earl Keen, but fans of that Texas troubadour and his more mellow counterpart Pat Green will likely enjoy Erwin’s music. Patty Griffin guests on one track.

DICKIE LEE ERWIN, Poppin' Johnny (Texas Music Round-up). From the title to the tunes, longtime Austin fixture Dickie Lee Erwin ( whose career credits veer from Ronnie Lane to Killbilly) is enjoying himself, and the feeling is mutual. The title refers to the distinctive engine sound of a John Deere tractor, but unlike a Deere, this disc purrs along familiar Texas music furrows with nary a backfire. There are whiffs of Don Walser-like down-home sensibilities, particularly on "Farmboy", "Big Screen Color TV" and " Stop Me From Lovin' YOu", which features infectious scale-climbing guitars and playful vocals. The veteran lets his young band take the lead on "Never Been To California", a jangly acoustic-and-banjo toe-tapper.