This column could be just like any other CD review. I could tell you how incredible “One Man’s Walk” is. I could rave on about the stellar songwriting, singing and production. I could prophesize that the artist, Jim, has a bright future in music.

But, all that hype would miss the point, for “One Man’s Walk” is not just your basic great debut album, although it most certainly is that. It’s truly about one man’s rise, walk, if you will, out of the lowest point of his life, how he’s worked toward his self-described second chance, and his hope for the future.

And, that ain’t hype, because, well, “One Man’s Walk” isn’t about hype. It’s about reality. Stark, smack you right in the gut, rise up or be defeated, reality.

Jim, the 49-year-old Nashville singer-songwriter, hell, the incredible human being, whose fabulous songs populate the journey revealed on this revelatory record, doesn’t use his last name. Not because he wants to be hip, like Prince or some hip-hop star, but because he must, by the creed of Alcoholics Anonymous, use only his first name and no pictures, despite the absolute public nature of his glorious craft.

You see, the reality that hovers over this incredible work comes with the admission that Jim’s an alcoholic. Recovering, to be sure, but as the sum of the wondrous songs on this moving disc tell the story, his is a day-to- day, stark reality of that very fact.

Jim remains anonymous because that’s how his recovery program works, yet with one listen to “One Man’s Walk,” you will get to know him, in spades. “Walk” is his own amazing story, in song, of how those “Twelve Steps” helped him, and continue to provide him, with the will and the strength, to come to grips with and to break the chain of addiction.

“One Man’s Walk” is 12 songs for each of the 12 steps, but, somehow, it’s so much more than that. It’s an absolutely inspirational musical journey of one man, that is, one strong man’s, ability to cope with a disease on a daily basis. And, despite its purpose, it’s not the least bit preachy. It’s just great songs, played and sung by a great artist.

Jim W’s story leading to this album began just over 20 years ago when, after running a marathon, he awoke from a drinking binge, the vestiges of sickness, both mental and physical, surrounding him.

“For years, I had been able to deny that I was an alcoholic; in that moment, my life would change forever,” he wrote on his web site, jimwsongs.com, where he offers the CD for sale. “I saw myself for the first time as I really was, a drunk, and then I cried.

“What I did next was the one thing I had never thought of doing before,” he wrote. “ I asked the God that I didn’t know, the God who allowed war and suffering, the God who let my loved ones and friends die awful deaths, yes, that God, for help. The foxhole prayer rolled off my lips, and the desire to drink was gone.

“The band did not play, there was no burning bush, I didn’t see an angel,” he wrote. “All there was was silence. A quiet calm inside my head that I had never experienced. It was the first of many daily reprieves, and it was an act of grace.”

It took some time (“I pissed around before I committed to working on the Steps” is the way he describes it), but eventually Jim made the commitment to the 12 Steps, and, as a musician and songwriter, he has committed that process to song, composing each of the remarkable songs on this record.

“I think I’ve got some attention deficit disorder,” he said in a recent interview about the album, “so a three-minute pop song with a great melody and lots of repetitive hooks has always worked for me.

“I have rightly been accused of assault and battery whenever I play guitar or piano,” he added. “I know my way around each of them just enough to compose. No one other than the very deaf and/or dead would call me more than adequate on either. That’s the truth.”

Yet, he said, it was important, perhaps imperative, for him to share his journey through these songs.

“It’s pretty much the same problem for everyone (with the disease), (but) the solution is the Steps,” he wrote on his web site. “I’ve put my experience, strength, and hope in song form. I hope there is something in the music that touches you in some small way. This is the story of my trip back from insanity.”

Initially, he wrote one of the songs, “My Old Disguise,” about his decision to make a change in his life and the therapy that has resulted from that decision. After that, he said in an interview published on the web site, “the songs just started to find me. I knew what I wanted to say, it was just a matter of finding the words and the music to say it.”

The songs do, indeed, say it. Jim does all of the singing and plays all of the instruments on the CD, a one-man tour de force showcase of his amazing, and continuing, journey. Yet, he does offer significant credit to one local Nashville musician whose assistance and inspiration on the project was, he said, enormous.

“Jack Sundrud (a highly successful Nashville-based songwriter, producer and web designer) designed the web site and was a sounding board for the project,” Jim said. “I can say with absolute certainty that this CD would not have been completed without his support and encouragement. I am most fortunate to call him a friend.”