Photo: Paula Masters

When you ask a woman who wrote the song “Jesus Was a Wino” if she’s religious, you don’t really expect her to say “Yes,” but Lydia Loveless – who includes the song on her sophomore album, Indestructible Machine – explains that she’s not trying to be sacriligeous. “I’ve always seen wine as a really biblical thing,” she says. “Growing up and drinking it in church for communion, and when I got older, meeting a lot of Christians who think it’s sinful to drink. It’s poking fun at people – it’s not anti-Jesus.”

The song is a pure cowpunk stomper, all jangly guitars and fast-tempo odes to the glory of drunkenness, like something Hank Williams III might have sang – if his voice sounded more like Neko Case’s than his granddaddy’s. Every song on Indestructible Machine isn’t quite as rollicking as “Jesus Was a Wino” – Loveless knows how to craft a big country hook, too – but the 21 year old songwriter is plenty comfortable with people getting to know her more raucous side first. “It used to bother me,” she explains, “But I’m pretty okay with it now.”

Indestructible Machine is out September 13 on Bloodshot Records.