Houndog;

This collaboration between Los Lobos's multi-instrumentalist David Hidalgo and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers/Canned Heat vocal vet Mike Halby strips off the varnish that adorns much modern blues revivalism, cutting through to a murky, minimalist framework that recalls the Delta and Chicago's South Side without being a slave to either. The tracks here offer up often dirge-like grooves so thick and lugubrious that, if this were a vinyl disc, one might check the turntable's speed. Against Hidalgo's languid, skeletal riffs and shuffles, Halby drawls and moans his way through eight originals and the collection's only cover, Junior Parker's "Change My Style," with a voice so angst-ridden and surreal, it reportedly prompted Bonnie Raitt to comment, "This is great! But is he gonna be all right?" Dub on some crackling, ticks, and pops, and Houndog would make a pretty convincing replication of four and a half great lost blues 78s. --Jerry McCulley