Boz Scaggs’ Soulful Blues Outing

Boz Scaggs has made a career out of mellow rock. But for his latest, Out of the Blues, Scaggs wanted to show off his roots as child of the ’50s. The title is a literal description of content — technically blues, but with soul oozing out its pores.

Scaggs channels Bobby Blue Bland on a couple of cuts, taking on “I’ve Just Got to Forget You,” from 1961’s Two Steps From the Blues, one of Bland’s more mellow low key soulful releases. Bland was known for his throat-ripping soul excursions, often sounding like he was gargling with honey covered tacks. Scaggs forgoes the tacks for a honeyed soul rendition backed by an all star studio band.

Jim Keltner has played drums for virtually everybody who is anybody in rock, including John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, George Harrison, Leon Russell, and Steely Dan. North Carolina native Willie Weeks on bass has a resume as lengthy as Keltner’s, spanning David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Bobby Womack, B.B. King, Stevie Wonder, The Rolling Stones, and Lyle Lovett. Ray Parker Jr.’s guitar work on “Ghostbusters” made him a household name, but he also has serious cred from session work with Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, Tina Turner, and Aretha Franklin, along with more guitar help from Doyle Bramhall II (Elton John, Dr. John, Erykah Badu) and Charlie Sexton, (Dylan, Keith Richards.) The other Bland cover, “The Feeling Is Gone,” from 1964’s Happy Reunion, is a Bland standard, buttery soul, but a few of those gargled tacks get swallowed and rise up a couple of times during the presentation and have to be spit out. Scaggs once again quaffs the honey, sans tacks, for a non-bumpy performance all the way through. Scaggs’ cover of Jimmy Reed’s “Down in Virginia” is a little less swampy than Reed’s original, but Scaggs’ spot-on nasal Reed impersonation and Doyle Bramhall II’s Reedy harp keeps the tune right on track. Scaggs take on Neil Young’s “On The Beach” is not as angular, the clangy edges smoothed off, soulful blues to toast the rising sun with before heading out on the never-ending road. Scaggs completes his rock roots trilogy tribute with this self-produced release, following up 2013’s Memphis, and 2015’s A Fool To Care, both produced by Steve Jordan. The music of Jack Walroth, a bluesman Scaggs has known since the ’60s, is featured throughout the album, authoring four songs on the release, one co-written with Scaggs, and three more on the bonus tracks. “Little Miss Night And Day,” co-written with Walroth, is the hard-rockinest cut, a Chuck Berry vehicle from lyrics to licks. With Bramhall and Sexton trading Berry-worthy riffs on guitar, it’s a window rattlin’ retro rumble that works as well today as it would have in Berry’s heyday. “Rock and Stick” is exactly what you’d imagine Scaggs sounding like when tackling blues — a soulful mellow glide with Keltner providing the punchline. Walroth’s “Those Lies” sounds like Mose Allison might have cut it after throwing back a few espressos. “Radiator 110” has a swampy Tony Joe White feel, sweaty, juke joint blues with Walroth’s wailing low-down harp. No surprises, just a good solid set of mellow soul from a consummate pro still at the top of his form.