California country singer-songwriter Rick Shea’s new Smoke Tree Road is an exceptional set that highlights his signature mix of communicative artistry, contemporary vision and traditional form. Perfected over the course of an influential five-decade life in music, Shea’s gently implacable dynamic—a stoic Western reserve capable of transmitting an abundance of nuanced emotional content—makes for a smoldering, soul deep approach that’s profoundly effective and deeply evocative.