At this point in time, the cowboy lifestyle and traditional honky-tonk music are purely romantic pursuits that purposely cut against the grain of modern American culture. Wylie Gustafson is not only a true romantic, he's also a craftsman and a perfectionist- and one of the most consistently fine cowboy singers of his generation.

A real-life rancher in rural eastern Washington, Gustafson has become a leading figure in Western music by performing songs that extol the virtues of life on the range and setting them to the catchy meter of old-time country dancehall music. On Paradise, he proves that he's grown into a master of his niche, enlivening nicely detailed songs about saddle bums and Yukon stars with one of the sharpest, most relaxed honky-tonk combos around. It's like Gene Autry fronting Ernest Tubb's Texas Troubadors with a fiddle sitting in, and Gustafson lifts it all with a clear, engaging voice that is as sincere and believable as a Henry Fonda monologue.