This follow-up to the soundtrack of director Taylor Hackford's acclaimed Ray Charles biopic contains key film tracks (like the rehab-cantered "Lets Go Get Stoned") left off the first collection, as well as a number of non-movie songs said to "inspire" the film. But far from mere marketing gambit, those tracks (which date mostly to the late 1950s and early '60s) help make this an even grittier, more blues-cantered sketch of the incomparable icon in his prime. The included bonus DVD contains just two songs, bracing performances of "Don't Set Me Free" and "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" culled from a 1963 Brazilian TV show chronicled on Rhino's O-Genio video. But the collection's greatest treasures are bluesy, 2003 live-in-the-studio takes of "Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand" and "Drown In My Own Tears/You Don't Know Me" by Charles himself, film dub tracks for which no other appropriate recordings existed. Listening to the Legend time-trip across decades is as serene as it is surreal, especially with "Baby"'s understated guitar solo being delivered by unlikely sideman Slash. The set concludes with Charles' magnificent, mid-70's gospel vamp of "America the Beautiful. " -Jerry McCulley.

Mississippi bluesman James Isaac Moore made the bulk of his recordings at JD Miller's Crowley, Louisiana studio, accounting for the deep, swampy sound and creeping rhythms of his hit singles. Another important influence on the Stones, Harpo's debut 1957 single "I'm A King Bee's" compulsive, chicken-scratch guitar motif became an essential part of their early sound. Although Ace have released a comprehensive series covering Slim's years with the Excello label, this Best Of draws together all the classic singles: "Baby Scratch My Back", "I Got Love If You Want It", "Rainin' In My Heart" (Louisiana pop of the highest order) and "Shake Your Hips" (rolling along with train-chugging intensity, rattling-sticks providing its percussion track). By 1967, he was recording in Nashville, producing even more light-footed material like "Te-Ni-Nee- Ni-Nu" and "Tip On In" ("let me see those fishnet hose", he drawls. ). Harpo had it all: a bittersweet soul moan of a voice, a squealing, wounded-hound harmonica sound and a feel for mixing genres that found him picking from country, rock 'n' roll and soul, perfectly placed to be one of the funkiest, most danceable blues performers so far in the music's history. Who knows how much more he would have contributed if not for his sudden early death from a heart attack in 1970. -Martin Longley Slim Harpo recorded really good rhythm and blues. He never got too fancy; he never forgot the importance of the groove. He died young in 1970, but his music reached the Rolling Stones (who covered his "I'm a King Bee"), the Kinks (who sang his "I Got Love If You Want It"), Van Morrison, and Them (whose first single was Harpo's "Don't Start Crying Now"). [+]