B.B. King- "One Kind Favor"

By: Charlotte Downes

Posted: 9/3/08

At the 2008 Chicago Blues Festival, BB King remarked to the audience, "You know, some of you young people say I sold out. What does that even mean?"

King's latest album, "One Kind Favor," provides an even better comeback to fans discouraged by the overproduced and slicked up albums that King has released in recent years. Producer T Bone Burnett used a similar tactic as he did with John Mellencamp's latest release. By backing off on production razzle-dazzle and instead placing the spotlight on King's voice, the album becomes both a kick back and a proclamation of King's age and maturity.

The fact that King is 82 - a fact easy to forget when he is bantering with the audience during live performances - becomes undeniable to fans. It's more than a little sad to grapple with, but kids: BB King is getting old. However, his age and experience is what makes the album work.

While the album is reminiscent of "Singing the Blues" and "Lucille," two classic, infamous BB King records that just about every blues fan owns, there is something different about this album. You certainly couldn't say that it's better. But somehow, his searing guitar licks seem to sting a little more. The stark lyrics twist your stomach a little harder. Now the blues aren't just about heartbreak. They're about heartbreak and running out of time. King's voice is no longer a wailing, slippery thing - it's a husky, well-aged vibrato that is still as arresting as ever. The fact that it sounds a little damaged adds nothing but credibility.

And without that credibility, an album full of covers would hardly be able to get off the ground. While it relies more on classics than King's own songs, something some fans may find disappointing, King still incorporates his own unique style. The album starts with a cover of Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave is Kept Clean" and a stunning version of "Blues Before Sunrise" that would even please John Lee Hooker, the legendary man who first introduced the song to blues fans.

Another standout is Lonnie Lohnson's "Tomorrow Night," which somehow manages to use jazzy, ragtime-esque piano in a mournful way. It seems fitting that the man who first achieved commercial success with a cover of "The Thrill is Gone" would begin to wind down his career with another set of thoughtful and powerful covers.

However, the highlight of the album is a stunning seven-minute version of "Backwater Blues." It plays in your stereo almost as well as hearing King play live, even on crummy, college-kid speakers. King wails, "I woke up this morning and I couldn't get out of my front door... It was so much trouble, make a poor man wonder why you even wanna go."

This song breaks your heart. Not because it's a last ditch effort by an aging musical icon - a pattern King easily could have slipped into. Far from it. Instead, it's exactly what blues should be, from Robert Johnson to Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones - well seasoned, searing music that reaches deep into people's hearts - whether it's affirming the laments of aging baby boomers, or scaring the tar out of youth obsessed 20-somethings.

As "Midnight Blues" says, "Don't ever gamble, unless you're sure that you can't lose." By returning to his roots, King scores a huge win.