Calm, cool, and collected, folksinger Eric Bibb approaches his craft in a style similar to that of Keb' Mo'. His honeyed voice and clean acoustic guitar wrap around songs like a flannel blanket. Bibb's music is filled with hope and uplifting sentiments without being spiritually pedantic. "Forgiveness Is Gold" and "So Glad" tell their stories in the titles alone. Even the lowly shoeshine man can approach his job and life with exuberance ("Dr. Shine") as he helps others improve their lives in his own small way. While these feelings could be juvenile, or-worse-corny, in the wrong hands, Bibb's songwriting and presentation elevate the material with a persuasive professionalism and integrity achieved through a career that spans ten years and as many albums. Credit also goes to producer Glen Scott, who brings just enough changes to the mix. Occasional tuba, snare drum, muted trumpet, and his keyboards add deeper, richer shades to these smooth watercolor sketches. The disc's lone live track, "My Father's House," injects subtle rawness into the proceedings and is certainly a highlight. [+]

Guest-star projects can be such tiresome affairs. Too often, the high-profile "friend" is nothing more than the record label's idea of someone they can feature on the front cover to generate additional sales. Additionally, these performances are frequently overdubbed, so the artist and the guest never actually come in contact with each other. Thankfully, neither is the case on Walter Trout's first studio album of new material since 2001's Go the Distance. Not only has the hotshot guitarist worked and maintained friendships with these players, but they convened in the same studio at the same time to nail these tunes. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of Trout's friends are guitarists who - like him - prefer to charge through songs with the intensity of a salmon swimming upstream. Joe Bonamassa, Bernard Allison, Guitar Shorty, Jeff Healey, Junior Watson, and Coco Montoya all share guitar-duel duties, and while the results aren't exactly subtle, there's enough explosive firepower here to level a small building. Even an acoustic session with Eric Sardinas - a neighbor of Trout's - attacks like an unplugged Rory Gallagher on a hot Belfast night. John Mayall (keyboards/vocals), James Harman (harp), Finis Tasby (vocals), Deacon Jones (Hammond B3 organ), and Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward also bring their game faces, and sometimes songs, contributing to various tracks with energy and intensity. Trout plays with his usual all-stops-out bluster, but there is an obvious affection for his guests on every track, which both energizes and spurs him on to new heights on what is arguably his best and most diverse effort yet. [+]