J.D. Souther released several critically acclaimed country-rock albums in Los Angeles in the 1970s and 1980s. As a songwriter, he's worked with artists from India.Arie to Warren Zevon (and, in between, Brooks & Dunn, Jimmy Buffett, the Dixie chicks, Don Henley, Bonnie Raitt, George Strait, and Brian Wilson, just to name a few). But what even industry insiders didn't know was that J.D. had been listening to and performing jazz of various kinds since the age of 12. So it came as a great surprise when he assembled a group of the top jazz players in Nashville (which has had an excellent jazz scene for decades) and released "If the World Was You," his first album in 25 years. The album sounds by turns like a classic New Orleans nightspot, like a Miles Davis album, and like a Buena Vista Social Club session, with all these jazz styles applied to J.D.'s superb country- and blues-tinged songcraft. It's a real revelation, it's been getting critical raves, and it's already spawned a new live album. And it's hard to imagine a better place than The Ark to hear this intimate and expressive music.