The Dustin Bentall Outfit

Having a famous singer-songwriter father is no guarantee of talent (Julian Lennon, anyone?), but BC songsmith Dustin Bentall clearly inherited some of his dad Barney's skills. The follow-up to his well-received 2007 debut, Street With No Lights, this strong effort gets a big assist from his band, the Outfit, comprised of Pat Steward (Odds), Adam Dobres and Del Cowsill. Producer John Ellis adds fluent steel and keyboards, while the reliably excellent Luke Doucet adds his signature guitar to five cuts. One of these, "Secrets," is a sparse and haunting song that single-handedly confirms Bentall's potential as a songwriter. Another highlight is Bentall's version of "3,000 Miles," a tune by talented Toronto peer Corin Raymond. The gunslinger imagery of the CD artwork is rather over-the-top, and there's the occasional banal lyric ("we're driving down the roads of our lives"), but Six Shooter generally hits the mark.