For anyone who heard Archie Roach's debut, Charcoal Lane, the story continues on his second album, Jamu Dreaming. Roach, an Australian Aborigine, is 38 years old. When he was 3, he was taken from his mother in a program the Australian government called assimilation. Forced relocation is the topic of the album's first two songs – "Weeping in the Forest" and "From Paradise."

Roach wound up drinking to forget a series of foster homes, while walking the "hungry mile," he says, of soup kitchens and pie lines. That was before his uncle appeared to him in a dream and told him to write down his experiences – which became Charcoal Lane's "Took the Children Away." But Roach finds redemption this time around. On "Mr.T" he sings about a father's tenderness for his child, concluding, "I'm starting to understand the meaning of love." "Love in the Morning," with Jen Anderson's violin suggesting Scarlet Rivera of Bob Dylan's Desire, finds Roach in a spiritual epiphany.

In contrast to Charcoal Lane's minimal arrangements, Jamu Dreaming, produced by David Bridie of the Aussie band Not Drowning Waving, features full accompaniment. Graham Lee's pedal steel on "Wild Blue Gums" is just weepy enough. The album's title track departs from Roach's usual straight narrative over three chords; on a bed of didjeridoo, harmonica and samples, Roach cries "Look at the walls ... cockatoo flies ... all we have is our dreams." Not beaten, Roach draws strength from his personal corner of hell.

Roach's wife, Ruby Hunter, joins him both as a character in the songs and as a backing vocalist. Roach's affirmation – "everyday in every way, we get better all the time" – is genuine. Music still saves him – one day at a time. (RS 664)

ANDY LYMAN