** Sleepy LaBeef

I'LL NEVER LAY MY GUITAR DOWN

(Rounder)

A few things Sleepy LaBeef does not do on his new record: go "unplugged," rhapsodize about the rain forest, duet with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, or make any reference to the macarena. What he does do: rev up his Gibson ES-335 and his rafter-shaking basso profundo and, with a minimum of fuss, tear through songs by Johnny Horton, Big Joe Turner, Eddie "The Chief" Clearwater, and a variety of others culled from his legendary repertoire. In other words, I'll Never Lay My Guitar Down is Sleepy doing his thing, much as he did on his last record and the one before that, and on an unfathomable number of bandstands over the last 40 years. There's rock and roll ("Sick and Tired"), gutbucket blues (the one-chord workout "Treated like a Dog"), roadhouse twang (Horton's "I'm Coming Home"), swamp boogie ("Roosevelt and Ira Lee"), and honky-tonk shuffles ("Little Old Wine Drinker Me"). If there's nothing new or visionary to speak of here, so what? Trends come and go, but if Sleepy never lays his guitar down, then more power to him.

-- Chris Erikson

(Sleepy LaBeef plays Johnny D's this Saturday, October 12.)