It took me a long time to get into the music of Steve Wynn. I missed out on Dream Syndicate the first time around; the only one of the band's albums I owned contemporaneously was Out of the Grey, it's swan song. When Wynn made his solo debut, Kerosene Man, I was at the college paper and received a promo copy (on vinyl!). I gave it a listen, and while the single, "Caroline," was catchy, not much else stuck. So, not realizing I was basing my opinion on perhaps Wynn's two least-representative albums, I moved on.

Another decade, another paper, another promo, this time for his solo disc with the Miracle 3, Here Come the Miracles. It was a sprawling, two-disc set that blew the doors off and made me a believer. A subsequent live show sealed the deal. I went back and picked up most of his solo discs and the nicely timed reissue of Dream Syndicate's Days of Wine and Roses, and got caught up. The follow-up to Miracles, while less expansive, was no less stunning. Static Transmission was a great extension of the raw but groove-filled sound of its predecessor.

Now comes what Wynn calls the third in the Desert Trilogy, tick... tick... tick. Recorded, like the previous two, in Tucson, it feels of a piece with the other two while pushing everything a bit further out, brightening the corners a bit. The songs are shorter and more direct, for the most part, but lack none of the fire that made the previous two so compelling. Wynn still provides plenty of guitar-fueled freakout, but the songwriting is more concise, offering a nice counterpoint to Miracles and Static.

The new disc is officially released in the U.S. on Jan. 24, but has been available overseas and through Wynn's web site since October. There is a lot of information and music on Wynn's site, as well as a lot out around the web. A nice interview with Wynn can be found on Whisperin' and Hollerin, while the band's MySpace page offers streaming tracks, including the tick... tick... tick outtake "Welcome to the New Regime."

For those needing an extra push, Wynn is a favorite of top-notch crime fiction writer George Pelecanos. The two are friendly, and collaborated on the song "Cindy, It Was Always You" on the new disc. While the song lyrics are a bit wordy, forcing Wynn to shoehorn an extra beat or two into a few lines, it's a nice result from a partnership that ones hopes will continue.