Angels Unite for Elmore James’ 100th Birthday Celebration

It’s a good thing this Elmore James tribute was recorded at various studios across the country. After Bettye Lavette gets done with her contribution, everybody else would have wanted have wanted to slink out of the studio and pretend they had something else needing their immediate attention, muttering “I just need to shut up” on their way out.

“I chose the song because of the lyrics. They were something I could live in,” Lavette said of her decision to cover “Person To Person.” But Lavette doesn’t just move in, she owns this one. Her version crackles with sass, Lavette cracking the whip, giving her man a tongue-lashing that would have any lover drooling with anticipation over his homecoming reception. James’ lyrics lay it out pretty succinctly: “Ain’t no use to send no letter/I can’t hold no paper tight/Ain’t no use to send no message/It can’t talk to me all night/Oh baby, don’t call me on the telephone/I need you person to person/Bring your little fine self on home.” But Lavette’s delivery dispels any remaining doubts about the outcome of this reunion. This is rip-your-clothes-off and do-it-in-the-yard music, fit for rollin’ and tumblin’, doin’ the nasty all night long.

Elmore James is the guest of honor for this 100th anniversary tribute from a dazzling array of artists from all over the musical spectrum. Lavette is the undisputed queen of this hive, but the also-rans are pretty impressive as well. Rodney Crowell steps up with “Shake Your Money Maker,” a slinky, rockabilly version with plenty of fire and grit and some wiggly steel courtesy of Doug Lancio, from Elmore’s Latest Broomdusters, the house band for the session.

Shelby Lynne and sister Allison Moorer’s rendition of the title cut sounds plucked right of the 1940s hit parade, the Andrews sisters with a country accent, ’till the bridge switches up genres to become a chooglin’ blues lope with a Hawaiian steel flavor, changing once again to ’70s funk with the burbling interruptions of B3 Rudy Copeland’s B-3 before Lynne and Moorer travel backward to the ’40s once again.

Keb Mo’s take on “Look On Yonder Wall” struts along, second lining in Crescent City brass band fashion but with slinky steel sitting in for the brass.

Immortalized in Rickie Lee Jones’ “Chuck E’s In Love” on her eponymous ’79 release, Chuck E. Weiss’ “Hawaiian Boogie” is as advertised, a pineapple-flavored, wriggly, hip-twistin’ steel rampage with a Bo Diddley backbeat.

Warren Haynes and Billy Gibbons team up on “Mean Mistreatin’ Woman,” their leather-lunged, bombastic blooze/rock treatment making James’ ’64 version sound timid by comparison.

Speaking of leather lungs, co-producer (along with Norah Jones and Robert Plant) Tom Jones cranks up his aging wheezers for a crusty run at “Done Somebody Wrong” that packs a good sized wallop.

Even if it was a vanity project, this would still rate at the top of the tribute heap. But the fact that it’s for a couple of charities, MusicCares, which helps musicians with financial, medical, and personal emergencies, and Edible Schoolyard NYC, which offers kitchen and garden classes to public school children, makes Elmore’s translators even more listenable.