There's a cinematic quality to the songs on Bukka Allen's "Confidante." Many of the songs are full of whens and wheres.

Allen, 40, says he's "drawn to the idea of trying to create snapshots of what's happening in a moment. I'm interested in creating music that has that sort of feel."

Seven damn years. Thats how long the lucky few who happened upon and fell in love with Bukka Allens quietly self-released gem of a debut, 1998s Sweet Valentine, have had to wait for a follow-up. Seven long years in which the Los Angeles-born, Berklee-certified, Austin-based and road-tested singer-songwriter busied himself as an in-demand session and touring keyboardist for hire, a film and commercial composer, and, most recently, a producer all the while squirreling away the work and life experiences that would, at long last, coalesce into a new tableau of hauntingly beautiful songs dubbed Confidante.

It’s really no surprise that Bukka Allen grew up to become a musician. The eldest son of revered Texas songwriter/artist Terry Allen and multitalented playwright/songstress Jo Harvey Allen, he was raised in a very creative atmosphere. “There was always music in the house,” he says. “There was always people around doing things all the time when I was a kid.”

I must confess to generally having little use for instrumental music; perhaps those of us who write for a living have an overly developed dependence on words. So it came as a bit of a surprise when I found myself playing this disc repeatedly in recent weeks.