Gerald Collier had a good solid run during the heady "grunge" years of the early '90s with his Seattle-based power-pop band Best Kissers in the World. Efforts to launch a solo career -- with solid critical reviews -- took off and then crashed a couple of times before Collier gave it up and got a day job. He recently moved to Portland, Oregon, where the guitarist from his solo debut album, William Bernhard, lives, and Bernhard discovered a bunch of lost songs that were recorded around the time of Collier's solo debut in 1997 and '98. They decided to release them, and found a sympathetic label in Portland's In Music We Trust. That's why How Can There Be Another Day is subtitled "Demos & B-Sides."

Collier sings in a sturdy tenor close to Slaid Cleaves' in timbre. It's quite effective for the country-tinged blend of folk and rock that he tackles here. The opening track is worth the price of admission alone, a bitter mid-tempo anthem called "One Clear Shot." If you go to his Web site you can listen to it play over the intro page. It features Collier on vocals and nylon-string guitar, Bernhard on lap steel and Jason Fitzgerald on minimal drums -- a tight trio that plays on about half of the dozen tracks. On the remainder, Jeff Wood joins in on bass and Brandon Milner or John Hollis play drums.

The rest of the selections are in the same vein: songs of love lost and regrets regretted. Perhaps the best of the originals are "Hell Has Frozen Over (On Who I Used To Be)" and the closer, a slightly more uptempo (but no more upbeat) "I'm Not Coming Back." There are also a handful of choice covers, including the Stones' "Jigsaw Puzzle," a post-rock take on Elton John's "Rocket Man," "Richard Thompson's "Night Comes In," Steve Earle's "Sometimes She Forgets," and the chilling "Is This What You Wanted" from Leonard Cohen.

All proceeds from the sales of this CD go to an unspecified charity, but it's worth buying even without that fact. Better news is that Collier is working on a new release for 2008. This one's available only online; find a link on his Web site.

Luther Russell's Repair is much more of a pop affair. I knew I recognized his name, and it came back to me when I read the bio on his Web site, which reveals that he produced recordings by the Portland-based Fernando and Richmond Fontaine when he was also living there. He recently moved to L.A., where he put together this record with the superb musician and producer Ethan Johns. Its 11 tracks were recorded mostly live, with everybody in one room doing everything including the vocals, which doesn't happen much these days.

The lyrical tone is dark, reflecting some recent bad times in Russell's life. But the sound is frequently upbeat. The opening track, "Rise and Shine," as well as "My Own Blood" both have a strong Paul McCartney "Good Day Sunshine" vibe to them in spite of their rather downbeat subject matter. Elsewhere, such as in "Blinking Star," he affects another Paul -- Westerberg this time. The middle part of the album is particularly strong, including "Lightning Strikes," which starts out a sad acoustic ballad and breaks into a mid-tempo rocker about halfway through; "My Own Blood," with a jaunty rhythm, fuzz-tone guitar and lots of clever wordplay in the lyrics; and "Black Leather Coat," another upbeat tune behind bitter lyrics, a put-down song almost worthy of Richard Thompson. And Russell shows off some blues chops, complete with striding piano and resonator guitar, on "When Your Way Gets Dark."

You can listen to some tracks on Russell's MySpace page.

How do these CDs compare? Collier's is a collection of B-sides and demos recorded 10 years ago, Russell's a newer bunch of songs by a guy who's
done more in the way of producing and playing on others' releases than putting his own stuff out there. Both are hard to classify as folk, rock,
country or singer-songwriter, but the common thread is that both are single-mindedly following their own muse. It makes for some idiosyncratic
and very "real" music obviously made for its own sake than as something to sell.