A & E

The last couple of years have seen him successfully reunite the Pixies on an acclaimed tour and record two fine albums: "Honeycomb" and this year's "Fast Man, Raider Man," a double disc.

And, although he has yet to tour extensively behind the albums, Pittsburgh fans don't have to worry about seeing the a lighter shade of Black when he performs Friday at Mr. Small's Theatre in Millvale.

"There are some more-relaxed tempos, but I have to say that the set we're playing now is fairly hard hitting," Black says. "It's more natural to me to go that way rather than take a more restrained, Nashville approach."

That means one of the great rock voices -- a guy who, to paraphrase a line from the band Squeeze, excels at going from a whisper to a scream -- will likely be in full throttle. And that's the way his fans like it.

As Black allows, "To be honest, after putting out a couple of Nashville records without touring behind them, I feel like I've haven't necessarily expanded my audience, shall we say. I don't now play to the John Hiatt audience. If I did, I think I'd be more concerned about representing the record in a more precise way. I'm still playing to a rock 'n' roll audience, so in a way, if there's anything I have to prove, it's that I'm still a loud rock dude."

No one who knows his body of work would ever accuse Black of shunning his rock credentials. Both "Honeycomb" and "Fast Man, Raider Man" are filled with Black's wry, observant and sometimes caustic songs. The difference is in the presentation. Both were recorded in the epicenter of country music with some folks of impressive credentials, notably Levon Helm, of the Band; bassist Carol Kaye, of Beach Boys fame; sessions pro's drummer Jim Keltner and keyboardist Al Kooper; and guitarist and singer Buddy Miller. Hard rockers Simon Kirke, of Bad Company, and Tom Petersson, of Cheap Trick, appear.

"It was sort of like I had my own Navy SEAL commando team," Black says of the assorted players who he could call upon. It was like 'OK guys were going to scale this building now. No problem, boom boom boom.' OK guys, were going swim across the bay and hold our breath.' We had all this prowess in the room. They could do anything, and it was wonderful."

The blueprint for the recording sessions was simple: There was no blueprint. On "Fast Man, Raider Man," that approach yielded a sprawling collection of 27 songs that charms continually by the wealth of its diversity. There's the buoyant "Johnny Barleycorn" and its roadhouse horn section, the desolate beauty of "You Can't Crucify Yourself" and its barrelhouse piano, and "Seven Days" in which Black seems to be channeling, at least thematically, Lyle Lovett.

"I didn't come with some sort of vision," Black says. "The vision is 'I'm a rock 'n' roll dude who ain't from around these parts, and you guys are all a bunch of mojo cats, and we're going to make a record and it goes a little something like this. Boom boom boom boom.' It was real quick."

The album also includes four songs co-written by former Pittsburgh singer and songwriter Reid Paley. Paley, who used to front The Five, one of the more significant bands to emerge here in the '80s, notably contributed "I'm Not Dead, I'm in Pittsburgh." No, it's not Sienna Miller's theme song, but a humorous song about being stranded in a town that you'd rather not be in.

Hmm, maybe it could be Miller's rallying cry, with lines the likes of "I'm not dead, I'm in Pittsburgh/They got me suited up for crazy times," all to a honky-tonk beat.

"He's got a great sense of humor," Black says of Paley, noting that he thinks Paley could be a great country-western songwriter if he wanted to be.

That seems about as likely as Black making a relatively mellow -- for him -- record with a group of ace musicians in Nashville.

Which means anything is possible.

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