September 03, 2008 09:15 pm
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B.B. King, "One Kind Favor," Geffen Records (Rating: 3 of 4)
B.B. King’s walking blues just don’t ramble from one painful memory into the next. His every step touches on suffering while seeking joy. King has recorded — with strong presence by producer T-Bone Burnett — his strongest disc in a decade. His last memorable recording, “Makin’ Love is Good For You” in 2000, was self-produced, up tempo and perhaps too upbeat. Here, every time King’s guitar Lucille soars, Burnett is there to have a bass drum or deep trombone drag us back into hardship and trouble. Dr. John, playing piano on most songs, dips into N’Orleans mud as drums trudge along, guiding King when he sings of leaving a woman he can’t please on “Get These Blues Off Me” or packing his clothes and moving on in “How Many More Years.” At 76, King looks back at life, humbled by the power of fate. The opener is a superb Burnett-driven reworking of Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “See That My Grave is Kept Clean” with King laying down funeral plans. In the dreamlike “Backwater Blues,” King stands on a hill looking at his home demolished by floods; his Gibson guitar rolls smoothly with the water fighting against the drums that want to suck him in. King reconciles the loss of a gal on “Sitting on Top of the World:” “There was days when I didn’t know your name. Why should I worry and pray in vain? But now she’s gone and I didn’t worry cause I’m sitting on top of the world. Alright.” The blues may be mournful but this gem always find balance. (King is set to play the Indiana University Auditorium on Nov. 1)
— Reviewed by Scott L. Miley, The Herald Bulletin
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