Anything Goes

Mississippi native Randy Houser is blessed with a rich, expansive voice, and his debut album features a few songs that rise to its level—first and foremost the hit title cut, a keenly observed lament about a breakup’s bitter toll penned by Brice Long and John Wayne Wiggins. At the other end of the emotional scale is Randy’s own hilarious “Lie” (co-written with Shane Minor and Reed Nielsen), which is just as satisfying in its own way. There’s too much humdrum material surrounding those peaks, but Anything Goes is still a solid start for a promising talent.