A Serious Cyrus? Mullet Over

With 'Joe,' Billy Ray May Be More Than a One-Hit Wonder

Today's burning question: Will the name Billy Ray Cyrus cause people to sneer and smirk for eternity?

Yes, his 1992 "Achy Breaky Heart" was country music's equivalent (actually, predecessor) to "Macarena," but why blame the mulleted one for recording a song so ridiculously catchy it was overplayed into a punch line? The people just couldn't get enough. Until they did. And then they got way too much.

Though he's gone on to find some success as an actor -- he plays the father to his real-life daughter Miley Cyrus on the Disney show "Hannah Montana" -- in the world of music, Cyrus's one-hit blunder status is cemented in awful-pop lore. But it's past time to stop judging him on that song alone, and there's no better place to start reevaluating his career than "Wanna Be Your Joe," a fine and occasionally compelling collection of 14 new songs. It's a nearly clunker-free effort that boasts a wide range of material, from the winningly earnest title track, with its hints of young John Cougar's "Jack and Diane," to the gas-price protest song "A Pain in the Gas," which brings the CD to a somber close.

Along the way, Cyrus tackles a fallen hero in "The Man (Tribute to Dale Earnhardt)," failed love in "What About Us?" and the flaws of his chosen genre in "Country Music Has the Blues." On the last, which boasts guest appearances from George Jones and Loretta Lynn, Cyrus offers an olive branch to those who have disparaged his country cred, singing, "If it makes you feel better / blame me if you want to / But I think country music has the blues."

Cyrus can turn on the twang with the best of them, but on this album he hits softer, smoother notes as well, sounding less country roadhouse than comfy living room. Though they're on the sappy side, such songs as "I Wouldn't Be Me" and "Hey, Daddy" have a simple, endearing grace to them. The latter is a weeper made weepier when you learn that Cyrus played the song for his dying father earlier this year, just weeks before he passed away.

If there is a theme to many of these songs, it is one of nostalgia and even regret, with nothing nearly as fluffer-nutty as Cyrus's most famous song. "I Wonder" is an unremitting heartbreaker, and an almost Roy Orbison yearning in the singer's voice comes through on the melancholy "How've Ya Been."

Even on the very funny rocker "I Want My Mullet Back," Cyrus manages to be self-deprecating while also expressing a real longing for the less complicated days of youth. You believe him when he howls: "A simpler time that's what I miss / Your miniskirt and your sweet kiss / Things are changing man and that's a fact / I want my mullet back."

So, back to today's question. Yes, it's likely there will always be snarky, smirking Billy Ray sneerers. But anyone who listens to this album will be smiling with Cyrus, not laughing at him.

DOWNLOAD THESE: "I Want My Mullet Back," "Wanna Be Your Joe"