Singer/songwriter Jim Lauderdale is on a hot streak—Honey Songs is the fourth album he’s released in a year and a half, and there isn’t a dud to be found on any of them. Two of those efforts were bluegrass, another was traditional country, and now comes this intriguing hybrid. Honey Songs is a set of straightforward tunes of the sort Jim always writes—simple, smart, direct and unforced—distinguished by a backing group that includes several members of Elvis Presley’s 1970s band, who lend the same warmth and energy they once gave the King.