Gnawbone, Will Scott's first studio release, has a lot to like about it. The opening song, "Jack's Defeat Creek," will have you dancing in your chair, maybe even jumping up to move around the floor. It's a killer track that the artist calls a Tom Petty-styled rocker, which, if we lived in a just world, would get a lot of air play. It's also the highlight of the album and that's what creates the few problems this CD has.

When it's good, Gnawbone is fine, but when it isn't, it's because it's all over the place -- unfocused, leaping from style to style. It's as though Scott wanted to take this opportunity to show us how versatile he is, but it sounds as though he's firing a shotgun instead of taking carefully aimed shots with a rifle.

Still, it's hard to fault an artist for being ambitious. Will Scott might be a singer-songwriter who is all over the place, offering up blues, rock, power ballads and folk, but he's also a man who appears to know what he's doing and determined to do it his own way. I believe that as he gets more at home and confident in the studio, his records will keep the same sense of life but grow more unified.

I'll be wanting to hear them.