"The great troubador of the Pacific Northwest Tom May is out with his latest, and it's a magnificent work. "Blue Roads, Red Wine" is an "autobiographical" album, his look back at 36 years of traveling, performing, exploring, loving, sampling the grape and looking forward to more of the same. The title cut, about two of his four favorite things-is as good of a song about the road as has ever been done, and May and his all-star backing band give the delightful melody a full, shiny treatment. Some say he sounds like Ian Tyson; he also invite favorable comparisons to his friend, Gordon Lightfoot, especially when he writes evocatively or delves into Pacific Northwest history. With "Celilo Falls", May ( and his co-writer on this song, mandolin player Fuzzy Purcell) has composed an important answer song to Woody Guthrie's BPA collection,important not just because it's a critical look at what the great dams did to the Columbia River; it's important because it's not a grouchy parody-it's a hummable original. May closes out the album with a handful of songs by other people, and they're high quality pieces, too. He's included Pat Garvey's "The Lovin of the Game" which is the song that gave the title to May's outstanding book (with Dick Weissman) on how to navigate the music business. Whatta Guy, Whatta CD!" (Tom Peterson; Victory Review, Seattle)