The live-simple equation reached in the title of Good Dog, Happy Man might lull the listener into believing that Bill Frisell´s continuing vamp on his Nashville band is reaching for the quaintest sounds possible. But in truth, this mellow-opening recording is as reaching and full of yearning as any of the guitar great´s other releases. He draws in the full-on bluegrass sound of Nashville with the more rock-hard crunch of that redoubtable effort´s successor, Gone, Just Like a Train, which debuted longtime session drummer Jim Keltner as an ideal foil for Frisell´s squishy guitar end runs around flashiness. Keltner´s back on board, as is bassist Viktor Krauss (who began his Frisellian foray on Nashville), but the band has grown to include Wayne Horvitz on Hammond B-3 for several steamy tracks, Greg Leisz on steel guitar and mandolin, and Billy Cox on second six-string guitar.