**** Ronnie Earl, Willie Smith, Pinetop Perkins, and Calvin Jones

EYE TO EYE

(Audioquest)

Down-and-dirty blues isn't something Ronnie Earl hasn't done before, but his recent flights with the Broadcasters have gone so far jazz as to record and perform regularly as a showstopper Coltrane's "Alabama." Here, playing with paragons Willie Smith, Calvin Jones, and Pinetop Perkins, in the structure of a Chicago blues quartet, Earl is a treat.

Audioquest and producer Joe Harley once again deserve a tip of the hat for keeping the Chicago sound stripped down and raw, with a touch of jazz, Delta, and boogie. Perkins's vocal is comfortable, like old leather; his piano mixed with Bruce Katz's B-3 on "Top Boogie Woogie" is a sweet juxtaposition of a seminal practitioner and an avant-garde stylist. Smith's title track is a simmering Delta stew with Earl's dobro steel licks resonating beyond mere sound waves. They also cover Roosevelt Sykes, Memphis Slim, and Sonny Boy Williamson. What does a blues fan want to hear? The cream of second-generation bluesmen with the finest of the first is a good answer.

-- Marc Levy

(Ronnie Earl and Duke Robillard play as part of the four-day House of Blues fourth-anniversary celebration this Friday, November 22.)