Think of Ry Cooder as a musicologist who makes learning fun. A particularly nifty collection from 1974, Paradise & Lunch is solo Cooder at his best. The song selection is inspired and unpredictable: numbers by Burt Bacharach, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and Bobby Womack mingle with ease. "Tattler" is a rare Ry original that happens to be one of the collection's highlights. Jazz legend Earl Hines guests on the dapper "Ditty Wa Ditty". -Steven Stolder.

Start with the Meters, whose hard funk is so efficient there's not a wasted note or out-of-sync beat. Add producer Allen Toussaint's wonderful vocal and horn arrangements. Top them off with seven Rebennack originals plus four well-chosen covers, and you have an album that seemed to arrive out of nowhere at the time of its original 1973 release. It still sounds garden-fresh today, not just the monster hits, "Right Place, Wrong Time" and "Such a Night", but also the chain-gang funk of "Same Old Same Old", the verbal insults of "Qualified", even the second-line soul of "Shoo Fly Marches On". The closest thing to a weak link is "Peace Brother Peace", in which Rebennack anoints himself the Dr Feelgood of love and happiness. But the Meters sound as if they believe every word he's singing, so who are we to argue? -Keith Moerer.

In Step embraces blues and rock without compromising the primal joys of either. This is Stevie Ray Vaughan's best studio album and the first he recorded sober. "Travis Walk" offers a heady rush of flat-picking, "The House is Rockin'" is full-tilt roots- boogie, "Let Me Love You Baby" and "Leave My Girl Alone" are sweet blues epiphanies and the nine-minute instrumental "Riviera Paradise" is a truly soulful mix of blues and jazz. By this stage, just a year before his untimely death, Vaughan had also tamed his bawling voice into a rich instrument. In short, this 1989 session is Vaughan at his artistic peak. It's raw blues-rock perfection. -Ted Drozdowski.

Ry Cooder may have been an in-demand session guitarist in the late 1960s, but what set him apart in his early solo career was his extraordinary, if eccentric, taste in songs. Here he explores the repertoires of everyone from Johnny Cash to Bahaman folk master Joseph Spence to Leadbelly with enchanting results. While Cooder's vocal skills are no match for his slide guitar and mandolin talents (the latter showcased splendidly in "Hey Porter" and "Billy the Kid"), he's an amiable singer who resists the temptation to camp it up, even when essaying such antiquated oddities as "FDR in Trinidad" and "Taxes on the Farmer Feeds Us All". -Steve Stolder.

Eric Clapton and B. B. King first recorded together for one track on King's 1997 album Deuces Wild, an experience so satisfying that they decided they'd better do it again. Before long, Clapton announced on US television that one of his remaining ambitions was to make an entire album with King. Roping in producer Simon Climie, who had been such an integral part of Clapton's hugely successful Pilgrim album, the pair hunkered down in Los Angeles and set to work rejuvenating and re-interpreting a bunch of King's classics including "Ten Long Years", "Three O'Clock Blues", "Help The Poor" and "Days Of Old". They also take on a bunch of other goodies including a slow, bluesey reading of Sam & Dave's "Hold On I'm Coming" and, appropriately enough, a witty take on John Hiatt's "Riding With The King". They reach back to 1946 for the Johnny Mercer/Harold Arlen standard "Come Rain Or Come Shine", and even dip into the 1930s to resurrect Big Bill Broonzy's "Keys To The Highway", where their trading of tasty acoustic licks is a particular joy. Throughout Riding With The King, Climie has kept the production admirably simple, with King's voice and guitar in one stereo channel while Clapton's is in the other, helping create a vital intimacy, as if they're playing across a small room to each other. -Johnny Black.

The Cream of Eric Clapton still manages to raise its head as Slowhand's definitive greatest-hits package, despite umpteen albums and an armful of Grammys since its release in 1987. Opening with one of the most famous rock intros ever, "Layla" has been the envy of bedroom guitarists for the last three decades. Next up is a choice selection of Cream's finest with hits such as "Sunshine of Your Love" and "White Room" plus the breakneck blues of "Crossroads" as a reminder of what Clapton did before his period of substandard covers, such as Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" or JJ Cale's "Cocaine". The latter half of the album is not up to par with the incredible start but does redeem itself with the beautiful ode to love, "Wonderful Tonight" and the chicken-picking "Lay Down Sally", though with its vague chronological order, The Cream of Eric Clapton does slowly regress into the tired ground of a rock dinosaur. -Georgina Collins.

This two-disc set's jewel-case comes embossed with King's gold-inked signature, presumably a seal of approval for this bountiful summation of his MCA years. Beginning with B. B. 's work for ABC in the mid-1960s (the label was later swallowed up by MCA), the compilation moves through B. B. 's cream-flared 70s output, then proceeds to sew up the 1980s. The title's promise is fulfilled within this given time-period, but King's first 15 recording years are missing, as are examples of his very successful 90s work. Massed strings add drama to "The Thrill Is Gone", "Paying The Cost To Be The Boss" swaggers with crisp horn feints, "Why I Sing The Blues" is a prime example of the extended funky vamp, these 60s cuts invariably swamped with eerie guitar reverb. The 70s provided an evocative canvas for exaggerated gesture, strings and electric piano infusing the moody "Chains & Things", B. B. [+]

Arguably the finest blues guitarist of his generation, Wisconsin-born Stevie Ray Vaughan initially learnt his chops on his brother-and Fabulous Thunderbirds' mainstay-Jimmie's hand-me-down guitars whilst glued to the works of Albert King and Lonnie Mack. After honing his skills in the late 70s with a variety of lacklustre combos, he was headhunted by David Bowie for 1983's Let's Dance tour, but left early to concentrate on his solo work. On this, his third album, Vaughan's virtuosity is both augmented and accentuated by Double Trouble, a backing band of rare competence, finally allowed to shine after having played a singularly supportive role to Stevie on earlier efforts. From the throbbing mid-tempo blues grooves of "Say What", through the barroom shuffle of "Look At Little Sister" to the head-spinning, flying-finger dexterity of "Empty Arms", Soul To Soul stands as a fitting epitaph to a true master of the blues. -Ian Fortnam.

For all the laudatory work he's done in rediscovering a panoply of artists from roots-based musical genres, Cooder's attempt to pay homage to influences closer to home, namely 1950s rock and R&B, on Bop Till You Drop produced spotty results. While Arthur Alexander's "Go Home, Girl" and Cooder's own composition, "Down in Hollywood", are notable exceptions, most of the album suffers from languor stemming from a real lack of drive or direction. Cooder's failed attempt to place Elvis Presley's "Little Sister" in a broader musical context underscores the gap between intent and achievement which plagues the majority of songs on this well-meaning but unsatisfying effort. -Wayne Pernu.