Here are the lessons I've learned after a few spins of Chris Knight's latest CD, The Jealous Kind:

• Obsessive love, as reflected in the title track, can give you the superhuman strength to subsist on coffee for days. However, you will eventually get pulled over for speeding, and it's uncertain whether your beloved will choose to bail you out, or opt for someone more geographically convenient.

• True drunken love usually leads to liquor store holdups. (See The Border.) Heck, if you run out of money, how else are you supposed to stay drunk, especially if you're packing heat?

• If love goes awry (Carla Came Home) and a nasty divorce holds no appeal, you can get away with murder.

In The Jealous Kind, his second release for Dualtone Records, Knight keeps true to his Kentucky roots by weaving urban tales from the dark side. He enlists the songwriting talents of Gary Nicholson, Chuck Prophet and Matraca Berg, among others. Former Georgia Satellite Dan Baird produced the album, Knight's followup to 2000's A Pretty Good Guy.

I don't know if I'd classify Knight's music as "Americana." He sings each song with such conviction and soul that it's tempting to wonder if The Jealous Kind is autobiographical (though you hope not).

Knight has picked up where John Mellencamp and the Highwaymen left off, creating a vein of outlaw Americana that should fit comfortably on country music radio, if this were a perfect world.

The world is far from perfect, though, and The Jealous Kind stands as a testament.

- Angie Glover

Take note: Chris Knight celebrates the release of The Jealous Kind at 9pm Thu., Oct. 16, at 12th & Porter, 114 12th Ave. N. Tammy Rogers opens. Admission is $10. Call 254-7236 for more information.