Known for his versions of old American folk, the former Old Crow Medicine Show singer finally puts his extraordinary voice at the service of his own material

Watson owns one of the most distinctive voices in modern Americana; high and melodic, it can also be piercing, plaintive, and downright otherworldly, an echo from the time “old weird America” was amassing its treasury of song. It’s a legacy explored by Watson, first as co-founder of Old Crow Medicine Show and more recently on Folk Singer Vols 1 and 2, two albums of covers masterly produced by David Rawlings. What he has lacked is an authorial voice – his own songs – an absence remedied here. Again its backings are low-key, acoustic and crisp; the voice is the thing. Now in his mid-40s, Watson casts a rueful eye on his former hell-raising self on slow numbers such as Real Love, written for his wife (seen dancing with him on the video), and Already Gone, a portrait of a time when “there are no hearts left to break”. He hasn’t abandoned covers; Stan Rogers’s Harris and the Mare and the wacky Mole in the Ground are here, while Slim and the Devil uses verses by Harlem revival poet Sterling A Brown. The lengthy spoken-word Reap ’em in the Valley recounts a teenage spiritual awakening in an apple orchard; genial and touching.