Not this time. "Box Of Pain," Tabor's ninth full-length album and first since 2005's "Hope: The First Step Toward Disillusionment," may be his most straight-ahead and sorrowful.

"It seems to lean a little heavier," said Tabor, longtime Douglas resident and housepainter. "There's not really a happy song on there, and I'm not sure why that is. Maybe I'm getting older and dying."

Even a cover of June Carter and Merle Kilgore's "Ring of Fire" sounds like a death-ballad here, sandwiched as it is between an indictment of the Bush administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina and a cover of Hazel Dickens' "Mama's Hand."

"Box" also includes covers of John Prine's "Rocky Mountain Time," Kris Kristofferson's "Love Is The Last Thing To Go" and the traditional Irish tune "Billy In The Lowground."

Tabor spent about four months recording "Box" with Albert McDonnell, his engineer for eight of the records. McDonnell also plays bass, drums, organ and sings.

Bearfoot guitarist Mike Mickelson recorded a few licks for "Love Is The Last Thing To Go" while the band was in town this summer. The record also includes John Hartle (mandolin), Eric Holle (mandolin/banjo), Sean Tracey (harmonica) and Paul Zahasky (guitar).

The new CD starts with "Worried Blue" and "Man Can Make Anything," a song about man's tendency to make war.

"Have you ever studied history?" Tabor said. "It's just the same ... (stuff) over and over. It started with a rock, the first murder. And now we can do it with buttons. We can put somebody on a computer and annihilate the world with a computer. People say it's getting better, but it's not. It's getting worse."

"Box of Pain" is an intensely personal song, while "Edward Hopper" is his chance to word-play. "Homeless" is fictional, but was inspired by a story Tabor read about a group of kids in Fairbanks who were hunting homeless alcoholics with baseball bats.

"Don Drew," track 10, is an ode to the popular cowboy weatherman, DJ and musician who died in Nov. 2006 at his Juneau home. Tabor was in Death Valley, Calif., when he called home and learned that his friend had died.

Tabor wrote the song almost immediately, while still in the desert. The open-key riff has an unusually poppy melody for one of his tunes.

"I'll never play it again," Tabor said. "It's a very personal song. It's me channeling how I dealt with his death. I played it out a couple time and I didn't feel comfortable.

"I love Don a lot," he said. "He was part of our circle. I had just sold him a guitar a year ago."

"House of Wickersham" is a look at Judge James Wickersham's famous house on Seventh Street, where Tabor and friends gathered for more than a decade to play music on Friday nights. He also recorded his first album in the mansion's attic.

The house is off-limits while it's being remodeled.

Tabor deemed "9mm" too "over the top" for previous albums. He decided to include it here, in the wake of Seung-Hui Cho's rampage at Virginia Tech.

"Hurricane" rants at the Bush administration for its handling of Hurricane Katrina.

"They couldn't even get the Army Corps of Engineers to get the garbage out of New Orleans," Tabor said. "It's a good lesson. We can ship billions to Iraq. But when disaster hits, don't count on your government to help you out.

"Do I sound left wing?"

• Korry Keeker can be reached at 523-2268 or korry.keeker@juneauempire.com