Blue & Lonesome
The Rolling Stones
(Interscope)
Three-and-a-half stars
The Stones pay tribute on their latest album to, well, essentially the same artists they have been paying tribute to throughout their 50-plus years as a band.
Their 23rd studio LP, the first since 2005's A Bigger Bang, is a 12-track effort that features a re-energised band going back to their roots with raw, stripped-down covers – some from top artists, others more obscure – from Chicago's electrifying blues scene of the 1950s onwards.
It was recorded over three days in London, with producer Don Was bringing out the grit on an album that revives the impressive harmonica skills of Mick Jagger, which were so prominent alongside those of Brian Jones on the early Stones releases.
Harp great Little Walter, who started out with Muddy Waters and found success as a solo act before dying after a nightclub altercation in 1968, gets the full Stones treatment, with four of his tracks covered, including the opener, Just Your Fool, and the title track, Blue and Lonesome.
On Little Johnny Taylor's Everybody Knows About My Good Thing and Willie Dixon's I Can't Quit You Baby, guitar legend Eric Clapton sits in and is faithfully authentic as he trades licks with Stones' guitarists Keith Richards and Ron Wood. Long-time collaborator Chuck Leavell adds to the groove on keyboards, but Mick Taylor, arguably the Stones' greatest blues guitarist and a frequent guest at the band's live shows in recent years, is conspicuous by his absence. Others to get the Stones treatment include blues stalwarts Jimmy Reed, Howlin' Wolf, Memphis Slim and Magic Sam.
Basically this is a live, studio LP reminiscent of the band's initial releases, minus the Chuck Berry covers. For a group that hasn't made a classic album since 1978's Some Girls, this release shows there is still life in the Stones – but is strictly for collectors.
acampbell@thenational.ae
