If you’ve ever wondered what it might sound like if a young Scott Walker had played the sort of heartbreaking country dirges found on Mickey Newbury’s celebrated 1971 concept album Frisco Mabel Joy, wonder no more. Just listen to the first 20 seconds of the opening title track, “Child of the Morning," and try to remember the last time somebody’s singing sounded smoother than that watery pedal steel. Throughout this EP, the Liverpool-based singer/songwriter croons in a golden tenor with honeyed inflections. That Skelly grew up with Cole Porter and George Gershwin songs is more evident in the jazzy “Brambles & Heather,” though what’s impressive is how Skelly blended jazz and country like chocolate and peanut butter without sounding like rehashed western swing. The folkier “Will She Hold Another” recalls the rainy-day beauty of Jackson C. Frank (check out Skelly’s flawless cover of Frank’s “Blues Run the Game” on the following He Looks a Lot Like Me EP). “Poet & the Dreamer” closes with softly galloping rhythms.