B.B. King, at 83, is probably the more widely known bluesman throughout the history of the Rock’n’Roll era.  With all respect to Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf, Leadbelly, Willie Dixon (we can go on and on) and ALL of the greats from all blues styles (Delta, Chicago, Louisiana, St Louis, etc), B.B. King has walked the coals of the Blues phenomenon from the birth of the Rock era to now.  On his latest album, a ‘back to basics’ recording with T-Bone Burnett at the production helm called One Kind Favor, B.B. King revisits the blues of his younger years with a fever.

The style employed here by B.B. King is one of spare production.  With a guitar and accompaniment, Mr King runs through a selection of 12 head-shakin’, toe-tappin’ blues tunes that are electric, hot, and genuine.  B.B. King’s voice is still strong, carrying the tunes with a force that will put this album into the annals of history as one of his finest albums.  And he has recorded a whole of them.

There is a trend toward taking music back to the beginnings, with Rick Rubin stripping the veneer off performers like Neil Diamond, Johnny Cash, and Metallica (amongst others), and T-Bone Burnett recently enhancing the works of Mellencamp.  On One Kind Favor, Burnett helps B.B. King make an album that can become a blues classic.  In a time when music is so splintered, it is hard to see where it originated, B.B. King resets the compass.

One Kind Favor is a great album that requires attention.