Good Bread Alley is such a spare, intimate album that at times it seems as if you are right inside the head of Carl Hancock Rux. Only the urgent "Living Room" approaches the slam recitation you expect from an artist whose job description generally starts with "poet," though the inevitable onslaught of hyphenates that follow in Rux's case get ample workout here as well. Named for a historically segregated black district in Florida, Rux's first CD for Thirsty Ear's Blue Series (after a few guest spots) is political but never pedantic, the vocalist's rich baritone not haranguing but cajoling with stories and images that paint a picture more effective than any speech. The music is equally impressionistic, less overtly experimental than the usual Blue Series output; instead, it's a more subtly mind-expanding mix of soul, blues, hip-hop, jazz and electronica that sits at the crossroads of 20th-century urban music.