Whenever a poignant and well-composed work of Americana or alt-country comes out, in come the rich metaphors and comparisons to country legends and folksy supergroups like Traveling Wilburys. But in the case of Don Gallardo’s Sweetheart Radio Revolution, Etc., the comparisons are fitting.

In spite of playing famous venues all over the nation (The Fillmore and The Whiskey-A-Go-Go, to name a few) and opening for Roseanne Cash, Gallardo has kept a low profile, peddling breezy indie folk with a Western sentiment. Nashville knows what that’s about, and not surprisingly, Gallardo found a home for himself in Music City. With band How Far West, Gallardo found a home for his album as well and released Sweetheart in 2009, with a cover design produced by Nashville’s Electric Western Records.

There’s no mistake about the old-time appeal of Sweetheart, and likenesses have been drawn between Gallardo and the likes of Ryan Adams, Tom Petty and Steve Earle. Bold comparisons, yes, but not off base. As a nostalgia-kissed contemporary looking longingly to the West and into the past, Sweetheartplays out just like its name in a voice as imploring and earnest as The Volebeats, but it still has something more daring lurking underneath.

It’s adorned with the bubbling bluegrass pluck of a banjo, gentle strumming and sporadic harmonica. Mandolins and organs sing in the background. Unhurried love songs unfold like country roses when Gallardo isn’t spouting whimsical lines in laid-back sing-alongs, like in the closing track “Take Me Home” (one of the best apart from opening track, “Sittin on Top of the World) in which Gallardo says, “We’d be ghosts just floating by in the key of C.”

The album is filled with interesting lines to ponder, and even when it slows down towards the middle, it manages to pique the listener’s interest again through rustic and easy-going melodies that have slack romance and an element of danger at the core.