Recently celebrating his 85th birthday and showing no signs of mellowing or slowing down, Robert Lockwood, Jr. remains as irascible and forward-thinking as ever. While this solo acoustic album hearkens back to the very first recordings he made under his own name back in the early 1940s, the approach is as modern and up-to-date as Lockwood's musical style has always been.

Sure, he was taught guitar and assorted musical secrets by Robert Johnson, but Lockwood's self-contained style started adding influences as each new decade unfolded. By the 1950s he was full-bore electric and helping to create the Chicago blues sound on records by Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson. As the decades kept coming, Lockwood incorporated more jazz chords and phrasing into his playing and adapted the seldom-used 12-string to embellish his style perfectly.

On this new disc, Lockwood goes against convention and loosens up to deliver an album chock-full of his acoustic 12-string interpretations of what he has denigrated in interviews as "that old bompty-bomp music" -- country blues. Seven of the 16 tunes come from the Robert Johnson songbook, all expertly played and sung with real passion. He also adds several of his own sparkling originals to the set, and tracks like "Train My Baby," "Run Your Mama," "We're Gonna Ball Tonight," and "This Little Girl of Mine" shine just as brightly as the Johnson and country blues covers. No mere acoustic retro exercise, this is a session with some real blood in its veins. Highly recommended.