Rich in rootsy instruments and wrought with a gritty narrative one would expect from Tom Waits, David Ford opens his 2012 Austerity Measures EP with “The Ballad of Miss Lilly.” Over rustic accordions, brass horns, acoustic guitars, and what sounds like a hodgepodge of random junkyard percussion, the former frontman for Britain’s Easyworld sings with a raspy nasal tone akin to Liam Gallagher's. He follows with the twangy “Life Is Good,” a country-tinged folk-rocker where he croons topical lyrics over timeless banjo and weeping pedal steel notes. He rubs timely lyrics that muse on England’s financial crises against the classic grain of '50s rockabilly on “It’s the Economy Stupid,” where hollow-body guitar leads are lightly distorted through a vintage amp, invoking the tones of a young Brian Setzer. The similarly thematic “How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love My Credit Card” returns to pastoral-sounding Americana instrumentation as Ford pokes fun at people who live way outside their means via swiping plastic cards. “Every Time” closes with Ford’s singer/songwriter prowess.