Notable CDs

The blues sets Clark free. He says so at the outset (“The Healing”). But soon he’s assaying styles and topics so multifarious that he makes Prince sound hermetic. And speaking of Prince, he’s only one pop genius whom you’d think Clark was the second coming of if you were to believe the hype surrounding Clark’s guitar, voice, and overall significance. Don’t. He’s talented but unimaginative, ambitious but prone to confusing quantity with quality. Hence this album’s too many songs, too-long songs, and too many too-long songs.

The Essential Deborah Coleman

The vital statistics: three apiece from I Can’t Lose (1997), Where Blue Begins (1998), Soft Place to Fall (2000), and Livin’ on Love (2001), and two from the live Soul Be It (2002)—Coleman’s Blind Pig Records period in a nutshell. Leading with her gender-overemphasizing rewrite of Muddy Waters’ “I’m a Man” was a mistake. The rest rectify that error, making her womanhood beside the point except insofar as it explains her access to emotions and bounces to the ounce off-limits to the incorrigibly macho.

Buzzin’ the Blues: The Complete Slim Harpo

The Rolling Stones covered “Shake Your Hips” and “I’m a King Bee,” Alex Chilton covered “Tee-Ni-Nee-Ni-Nu” and “Tip on In.” And those are just two of the white hipsters whom this Louisiana-born, -bred, and -died bluesman influenced. Laid back and cool, Harpo made sounding easy (and crafting double entendres) sound easy. This Bear Family box includes all of his studio recordings and wraps up with an archival live disc. It would all feel like too much if it didn’t feel like not enough.

Find a Way to Care

If he makes it to December, Mayall will be as old as Willie Nelson. And, if these dozen recordings are any indication, he’ll live that long and then some. His voice sounds like that of someone 10 years younger (cf. Boz Scaggs), his band like musicians who realize that if they don’t find a way to care, plenty of others will eagerly take their place. But it’s neither Mayall’s voice nor his band that distinguishes “Ain’t No Guarantees.” It’s Mayall on Hammond organ, casting shades of Deep Purple.

Spotlight

Technically, Barrence Whitfield (whose real name is, believe it or not, Barry White), is not a blues singer. Neither are his Savages blues musicians. But the same could be said of David Johansen and the New York Dolls, the singer and band whom Whitfield and his Savages most closely resemble. And, as every rock ’n’ roll fan knows, the blues striated Johansen and the Dolls and then some. So ditto for Whitfield, whose latest album is appropriately titled Under the Savage Sky (Bloodshot).

Listeners familiar with Howlin’ Wolf will recognize the inspiration for “The Wolf Pack.” “Angry Hands,” meanwhile, takes as its musical starting point Alice Cooper’s “I’m Eighteen,” which was essentially what the blues would’ve sounded like if invented by white, suburban teens. Fore, between, and aft, Whitfield et al. raise a ruckus by no means averse to virtue. In “I’m a Good Man,” he even pledges to marry, sire children, and, finally, leave “no-good women” alone.