Through the sand - Time in Iraq was foundation for Cliff Hudson's debut album, Outside the Wire.

It's said absence makes the heart grow fonder, but what emotions does the heart endure during the actual time apart? It's definitely a fickle existence being apart from a loved one where sentiments alternate between love and anger, fear and joy.

Little Rock via Tennessee country musician Cliff Hudson captures those differing emotions in the acoustic guitar-propelled ballad "Send My Love." A sentimental expression of pining for his fiancee, Hudson wrote the tune while stationed with the Marine Corps in Ramadi, Iraq, during 2006 at a time when the capital of the sprawling Anbar province was a dangerous hot spot in the Iraq war. For nearly five minutes, Hudson's tune is a heartbreakingly beautiful tale of longing - "Tired of seeing sunsets without you/Tired of this rifle being the only thing I hold onto on these lonely nights" - tempered with the joy of a promised homecoming.

The tune is the centerpiece track of Hudson's debut album, Outside the Wire, an album that doesn't wallow in the saccharine-heavy pop country Nashville passes off these days as workingman's music. Instead, Outside the Wire is a quick (with 10 tunes clocking in under 35 minutes), joyous and lively interpretation of modern country music that holds more in common with the Red Dirt scene rather than the polished sheen of Music City USA.

Hudson wrote four of the tunes while stationed in Ramadi between March and October 2006 with the use of a Martin steel-string Backpacker guitar. Recorded by Ty Sims at The Recovery Room in Conway, Outside the Wire features Hudson on vocals and guitar backed by members of Tragikly White: Rick Martin (Hudson's brother-in-law) on guitars, vocals and banjo, Gerry Smith on drums and Luke Tibbett on bass with Dr. Bill Fiser guest-spotting on harmonica. The Tragikly White boys brandish their chops on the album, especially on the album's roisterous opening double shot of "A Life Well-Lived" and "Doin' Fine Tonight."

It's an album stripped of the mind-numbing Nashville production; more relaxed and laid-back with a Friday-night, front-porch party sound to it swerving between bluesy workouts and acoustic ballads. There's no hokey country lyricism but a strong lyrical imagery throughout, and even a little Caribbean flavor thrown in with "So Long, Goodbye."

Hudson's toed the front line, but instead of forcing a fabricated patriotism on people with Outside the Wire, he only wants to share in the jubilation of simply being alive.

Good: The 30-year-old Hudson has the pedigree to be a successful country musician: He was born into a musical household in Chattanooga, Tenn., where his mom was a DJ on a country radio station and his dad was a DJ on an AM rock 'n' roll station. The childhood influences merge on Outside the Wire, with the Bruce Springsteen rock storytelling in "Takin' Back My Life" colliding with the toes-in-the-sand country music of Kenny Chesney in "So Long, Goodbye."

The playful kiss off of "So Long, Goodbye," with a breezy guitar solo by Martin, Smith's military drumming and Tibbett's lazy bass line powering it, is a gem. The tune combines Chesney's calypso country with impish lyrics such as "You didn't like my drinking/Now I got one in each hand/Hated when I wouldn't wear my shoes/Well, that's dress code here in the sand." It's easy to imagine the as-yet-to-be-filmed video for the tune: Hudson barefoot in the Caribbean sand with Tragikly White and Fiser dressed as Jose, The Captain, Jim and Jack.

Bad: A couple of songs on the album could use a little refinement. The rowdy bar anthem "A Life Well-Lived" is burdened by a second verse that only details how many shots it takes to feel great. And while the beer-and-a-shot rambunctious of "Country Fried Pedigree" is certainly infectious; it's the one tune on the album that sounds the most like a contrived pop country hit - as the University of Tennessee alumnus Hudson even throws in a "Woo, Pig! Sooie!" And while there's nothing wrong with writing hits, Hudson has the gift for writing country hits the old-fashioned way: writing the truth from a personal perspective.

Must haves: "Doin' Fine Tonight," "Takin' Back My Life," "So Long, Goodbye," "Send My Love," "Let It Rain"

Rating (out of five): 4