Richard Shindell is one of the best singer/songwriters today, carefully crafting deceptively simple guitar-backed ballads for the discerning listener for decades. Somehow popular success has eluded him, but his recent live performance CD Courier should have brought him prominently into the spotlight.

Courier features 13 of Mr. Shindell's best work. The ballads are not the usual love-found-and-lost, though you'll find enough of that here. But you'll also hear songs involving federal interrogations (Fishing), trench-warfare messengers (The Courier), and nun-lead prison choirs superimposed on automotive turnpike warfare (Transit, my favorite song on the CD).

You'll also hear one of the finest kiss-off songs ever written (Are You Happy Now?), Mary Magdelene's lament of the loss of her lover Jesus (The Ballad Of Mary Magdelene) and one of the best trucking songs written outside of the country music genre (The Kenworth Of My Dreams).

You'll also find two creditable covers of Lowell George's Willin' and Springsteen's Fourth of July, Asbury Park.

The backing band for Richard is professional and sharp, as are the backing vocals from fellow songster Lucy Kaplansky. The arrangements are a well-crafted for the live stage, and the sound is incredibly crisp and clean for live performance work.

This is a great piece of work from a veteran troubadour, and should be a prominent part of your music collection.