Better Blues

Paul Butterfield's post-Blues Band outfit's second album is a bit more laid back than its predecessor, but it definitely has its moments, and as before the musicianship is stellar. The opening "Too Many Drivers," for example, is a churning Chicago blues, with Butterfield's horn impressions figuring as intensely as ever, that would have fit in perfectly with anything on his old band's debut. Geoff Muldaur turns in a haunting rendition of a delicate Rick Danko-penned R&B ballad "Small Town Talk," while "Take Your Pleasure Where You Find It," co-written and co-sung by Butterfield and R&B legend Bobby Charles, is a clavinet-driven funk workout whose instrumental sections work up a real Little Feat-style froth.

Lucinda Williams is incapable of sounding anything less than 100-percent engaged and sincere. Whatever she has to say, she clearly means it, and that more than anything else is the thread that runs through 2020's Good Souls Better Angels, her fourth album since she launched her own record label and took full control of her process of recording and releasing music. Cut mostly live in the studio with her road band – Stuart Mathis on guitar, David Sutton on bass, and Butch Norton on drums – these 12 songs play like a long stream-of consciousness journey, with Williams writing in blues structures that repeat certain lines like a mantra while her band either sneak up on the music like a ghost or howl with elemental, bluesy skronk (the raw, gritty tone of Mathis' guitar matches Williams' vocals for sheer ferocity on numbers like "Down Past the Bottom," "Bone of Contention," and "Wakin' Up" like he's roots rock's answer to Ron Asheton).

Pink isn't a color usually associated with blues but That Hot Pink Blues Album doesn't have a sound usually associated with Keb' Mo'. Sure, there are elements of the acoustic slide guitar that has been his signature since his 1994 debut, but the live album emphasizes his softer, soulful side, sometimes pairing the bluesman with sympathetic strings. In this respect, That Hot Pink Blues Album feels like a cousin to the mellow 2011 set The Reflection, but these 16 songs were cut on the 2015 supporting tour for 2014's BLUESAmericana, a record that was designed to touch on as many different American roots sounds as possible. Compared to that, That Hot Pink Blues Album is a little more streamlined, containing a dual focus on mellow grooves and sensitive reflections. He's attempted this in the studio, but his interpretations breathe and sigh on-stage, which is what makes That Hot Pink Blues Album warm and enveloping in a way few other Keb' Mo' records are.