Boz Scaggs considers
Out of the Blues to be the final installment in a (primarily covers) trilogy that began with 2013's
Memphis and continued with 2015's
A Fool to Care, excellent outings that reflected
Scaggs' desire to reach back into the cradle of inspiration. This set looks back to his 1965 debut album Boz (a solo acoustic covers set released only in Sweden by Polydor) and 1997's criminally overlooked
Come on Home, a woolly, house-rocking collection of (mostly) vintage R&B and soul-blues covers, for its foundation. While these early recordings don't necessarily sound similar, they make use of the work of a particular set of performers and songwriters -- including
Jimmy Reed and
Don Robey (credited with many of
Bobby "Blue" Bland's hits) -- who have always provided inspiration and grounding throughout his lifetime. Whereas
Scaggs' two previous offerings were produced by
Steve Jordan,
Boz opted to co-produce
Out of the Blues with
Chris Tabarez and Michael Rodriguez, creating an impression of intimacy and loose immediacy that ranks with the swampier feel of
Come on Home. His band here includes holdovers bassist
Willie Weeks,
Jim Cox, and rhythm guitarist
Ray Parker, Jr. as well drummer
Jim Keltner (the kitman on
Come on Home), and guitarists
Doyle Bramhall II and
Charlie Sexton; there is also a selectively and impactfully used three-piece horn section.
The set includes two
Robey tunes closely associated with
Bland: the souled-out nighttime groover "I've Just Got to Forget You" (with its gorgeously charted horns) and the organ-drenched jazz-blues of "The Feeling Is Gone" (whose horn section sounds like
the Jazz Crusaders). And while the vibe on those two numbers is more sultry that raucous, that bill gets filled with an uptempo fingerpoppin' version of
Reed's "Down in Virginia," with
Scaggs delivering a punchy I-IV-V progression to rival the master's, and
Jimmy McCracklin's swinging jump blues "I've Just Got to Know," with a burning guitar break from
Sexton. Interestingly, these tracks, fine as they are, are not the album's high points. Opener "Rock and Stick" is one of four tunes written or co-written by Jack "Applejack" Walroth, a compadre of
Scaggs since the 1960s who has worked with everyone from
Elvin Bishop to
Mike Bloomfield, from Steve Miller to
Cash McCall. Its shuffling, smoky, seductive futuristic West Coast blues is elevated by the composer's harmonica and
Bramhall's evocative, slippery guitar solo. The punchy six-string riff on the composer's "Radiator 110" is played in tandem by
Scaggs, Walroth, and
Steve Freund with a lonesome highway harmonica break that rises like steam heat from the middle eight.
Scaggs and Walroth co-wrote the thumping
Chuck Berry-esque "Little Miss Night and Day," with lead breaks from both
Sexton and
Bramhall. The set's outlier is a moody, deep-blue read of
Neil Young's "On the Beach," where
Scaggs' trademark croon invests its minimal melody with a dark passion.
Out of the Blues may be an excellent final chapter in this roots trilogy, but stands on its own as one of
Scaggs' most sure-footed releases. ~ Thom Jurek