If Blue Rodeo were The Beatles, Jim Cuddy, we humbly submit, would be Paul -- the slightly poppier and more accessible yin to the Lennonesque Greg Keelor's darker and more enigmatic yang.

Hold your angry e-mails, kids; that is not a dig at Cuddy. After all, Lennon made some groundbreaking solo LPs -- but whose stuff do you hear more often? The same could be said of the Rodeo leaders' solo work.

Sure, Keelor has made some daring and unconventional choices with his psychedelic experiments. But we suspect Cuddy's second solo album will end up in heavier rotation on most fans' iPods.

Mainly because The Light That Guides You Home -- his first extracurricular full-length since 1999's All in Time -- delivers everything you know, love, want and expect from Cuddy: Impeccably crafted, slightly nostalgic country-rock and roots-pop laced with gorgeous melodies, bittersweet lyrics, heartfelt vocals and twangy sincerity.

There are cuts that gently rock like Neil Young in Laurel Canyon circa '69. There's some strummy folk with Dylanesque harmonicas and fingerpicked acoustic guitars. There's heartsqueezing piano balladry flecked with strings and a lonely, lyrical trumpet. There are jangly, Byrdsian guitars. There are fiddles that lend a Mellencampy air to the proceedings.

There are enough shout-outs to Canadian locales -- including Winnipeg -- to rival Stompin' Tom. There's a punchy rocker that kicks a little like Elvis Costello on Get Happy! There are a couple of old-timey roots numbers that wouldn't be out of place on The Band's first two discs. And there's even a rollicking honkytonk number that boasts a boisterous barrelhouse piano and the album's funniest line: "16 bottles and a wedding trunk / Oughta be a law against marrying drunk." Yeah, it's a silly love song.

But what's wrong with that? It's still a charmer.

Just like the rest of this disc.

Track Listing:

1. Maybe Sometime
2. All I Need
3. Light That Guides You Home
4. Falling
5. Married Again
6. What She Said
7. Pull Me Through
8. She Gets Down
9. Countrywide Soul
10. Will I Be Waiting
11. One Fine Day
12. Stagger In