**1/2 Johnny Jenkins

BLESSED BLUES

(Capricorn)

The comparisons to blues great Elmore James are obvious, both in the choice of material and in Jenkins's hard-rockin' slide guitar attack. A great blues chatterer but a lumbering vocalist, Jenkins kicks out Blind Willie McTell's and the Allman Brothers' cornerstone "Statesboro Blues" and Muddy Waters's "You Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had" in a stutter-step style reminiscent of James's "Done Somebody Wrong." Jenkins's version of James's "Mean Mistreatin' Woman" is underpinned nicely by Chuck Leavell's piano and William Howse's harmonica, but features a Jenkins slide solo more gratuitously flashy than anything James or even Duane Allman ever conjured up. Jenkins is one of the more intriguing stylists around, and it's fun to hear him translate standards as well as some lesser-known originals by Howse and guitarist Jack Pearson (both of the current Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section), such as "It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues" and "The Truth is Gonna Stand." Both tunes have the leathery, timeless sensibility that Jenkins aspires to.

-- Marc Levy