Billy Ebeling and the Late for Dinner Band

Billy Ebeling's time as the smiling, long-haired fixture on the porch at The Crossing is over, but those days are still audible in the understated blues, zydeco, country and bluegrass hybrid found on A Thing for You. Ebeling has been around long enough to inhale genres, and with songs like "Pass the Hat"(acoustic string band blues), "All the Way to Alice" (Dylanesque country) and Ry Cooder's "Feeling Bad Blues," Ebeling proves he has a soft spot for the eclectic edge of the '60s. It takes a few songs, but Thing blossoms with "$100 Town," a song about low-paying-gig-induced depression. And the piano-driven "Kansas City Misery" might be the finest song of Ebeling's career, managing to capture the downhearted musings of every person who has felt a bit low 'round here, cheatin' girlfriend or no. Like Arlo Guthrie, Paul Simon and Leon Russell, Ebeling doesn't have the pipes to blow anybody away; he simply throws heart and talent into a little bit of all the good stuff. And like those legends, he has the chops and sincerity to make it work.