I have mixed feelings about him.

I agree, on the one hand, that he is really brilliant at what he does. And I bought both his albums.

On the other, I think the way he sings often sounds a bit contrived and stagey (he sings like Granpa Simpson, with a hillbilly accent, even though he's a 25 year old from Los Angeles). Forget about the accent (I've discussed that to death elsewhere), it's more the faintly bizarre singing-like-an-old-man thing.

To give an analogy, it would be a bit like if Jim Causley were to practice and practice practice until he could do an absolutely perfect impression of Cyril Poacher, as heard on the Musical Traditions CDs. You'd applaud him for the effort and results, but you'd feel a bit weird watching a performance of it.

I guess what I'm saying is, I think he's very good indeed right now, but what would really take him up an emotional register would be if he was more himself and less a stylised, expert rendition of his old 78rpm records.