The Rolling Stones

Blue & Lonesome

The legends cover their heroes and recapture their glory in the process As The Stones go right back to the music that brought them together in the first place, the biggest question is why did it take them so long?

This is the sound of musicians in their element, and loving every minute of it. Tracked live with Don Was over three days at British Grove Studios in West London, it recalls the simpler times of 1963 and the experience of musical minds who have lived enough to carry the legacy of the likes of Howlin’ Wolf and Willie Dixon on their shoulders. Starting loose with Little Walter’s Just Your Fool to give Mick Jagger’s mean blues harp the first of many airings, proceedings hit their stride early, and by the hypnotic lick that drives Wolf’s Commit A Crime, the suggestion is made that this could be the best thing The Stones have done in decades. And so it proves. Jagger commands these songs with voice and harp, inhabiting Little Johnny Taylor’s Everybody Knows About My Good Thing (the first of two Clapton guest spots here) in a way only a passionate student of the blues can. And Keef and Ronnie are the reprobate graduates; their swaggering dynamic and cutting tones are gloriously menacing in the title track, lo-fi and ragged in a startling take on Lightnin’ Slim’s Hoo Doo Blues, the production capturing the detail of every slide and lick to place you right there in the room with them. It’s The Stones pulling together again – lurching into the breaks of Just Like I Treat You as Jagger’s harp and Richards duel, and rolling back the years with Clapton for Dixon’s beloved I Can’t Quit You Baby. If it’s hard to fathom how a group of senior gents have just pulled off the finest blues record in years, perhaps the answer lies therein. These songs needed a lifetime of respect before The Stones felt they could gift them the right way and, in turn, capture their own essence for a new generation. [RL] Standout track: Hoo Doo Blues For fans of: Classic Stones, Bluesbreakers