The marriage of rock and country has spawned all manner of oddities, from headset-wearing New Country studs with Kansas c.d.'s hidden in the glove boxes of their pickup trucks to earnest Y'AllternaKids struggling desperately to conceal their roots in early R.E.M. What to make, then, of Speedtrucker, a batch of born despoilers from Dallas who play a diesel-driven brand of country-rock that combines the punky energy of the Lazy Cowgirls with the outlaw vibe of Merle Haggard?

Now four years into their run, the four 'truckers have just released The Curse -- their third full-length and the first to consist of all original material -- on Arlington-based Aaron Ave Records. The band's biggest asset is founder and frontman Michael Cox, who sings in a register most rock fans have forgotten even exists -- a testosterone-laden baritone worthy of Waylon Jennings Hisself. When Cox sings "I don't thank I drank a lot last night" in a song about waking up in somebody else's house after a night of gambling and brawling (and dranking), or "The road always keeps me / Running from the man" in the self-explanatory "Hard Livin'," he gives you the sense that he knows whereof he speaks. (That's true even though he hedges his bets and bleeps the F-word from the aforementioned "I Don't Think That I Drank").

Musically, the rough-and-rowdy band revolves around Arlingtonian Josh Davis, a lapsed blues guitarist who now -- hewing to C&W the way Hag knows it -- plays a twangy Telecaster. In the engine room, David Mitchell (who's since departed) pounds out a solid four-on-the-floor beat, while recent addition Kirk Richardson holds down the bottom end unobtrusively. There's no Great Art or Big Statement on The Curse, just the soundtrack for a nicotine-and-alcohol-fueled good time.