Blues on the Bayou

1	Blues Boys Tune 3:29
2	Bad Case of Love 5:28
3	I'll Survive 4:52
4	Mean Ole' World 4:30
5	Blues Man 5:19
6	Broken Promise 3:34
7	Darlin' You Know I Love You 5:26
8	Shake It up and Go 3:10
9	Blues We Like 5:08
10	Good Man Gone Bad 3:20
11	If I Lost You 4:57
12	Tell Me Baby 3:26
13	I Got Some Help I Don't Need 4:37
14	Blues in G 3:28
15	If That Ain't It I Quit 3:20

Barnes & Noble

Here's the B. B. King who moved mountains. After too many celeb-studded, laconic outings, this 1998 release is filled with his trademark, almost painfully eloquent guitar work on a gimmick-free selection of blues and ballads. His singing is on the money, too. With a voice as lustrous as old, well-polished wood, he imparts a melancholic defiance to the brilliant "Blues Man." His accompaniment is sparse and to the point, with James Sells Toney scoring high marks for his piano on the unhurried but insistent "Mean Ole' World" and organ on the churnin' "Bad Case of Love." Much of what B. B. sings here harkens back to classic material -- the ebullient "Shake It Up and Go" updates "Bottle Up and Go," a Tommy McLennan chestnut from the '40s -- but he puts the B. B. brand on this, and that makes this his best album in more than a decade. Tim Schuller

All Music Guide

B.B. King made his debut as producer with Blues on the Bayou, released in October 1998. He employs the most basic of ideas for this project: record an album of B.B. King tunes, with B.B. King's regular road band, under B.B. King's supervision. Keeping it loose, relaxed, and focused, King cut this album in four days down at a secluded studio in Louisiana and came up with one of his strongest, modern-day albums in many years. No duets, no special guests, just King and his road warrior band, playing his songs with him producing the results -- no overdubs, just simple, no-nonsense blues done like he would do them on-stage. The result is a no-frills, straight-ahead session that shows that King might be have been 73 at the time of this date, but he still had plenty of gas left in the tank. Tracks like "I'll Survive," and the jumping "Shake It Up and Go," "Darlin' What Happened," the minor keyed "Blues Boy Tune," the instrumental "Blues We Like," and the closing "If That's It I Quit" show him stretching out in a way he has seldom done in a studio environment, and the result is one of his best albums in recent memory. Cub Koda