TK Webb

You can hear right away that TK Webb has perfect blues hands. His thumb sounds as thick and heavy as a stump, pumping bullfrog refrains from the lowest guitar strings; his quick fingers spin silver-minnow flourishes. A simply played barroom piano, vibrant organ chords and bending notes from a harmonica all add their voices to this brief, meaty record of old-style acoustic blues. But the super-lative guitar picking is the main attraction: a dexterous combination of droning accompaniment and lively, agile leads. Throughout the album runs the steady, propulsive pound of Webb's foot, stomping on a suitcase with a tambourine inside. This rhythm changes between the fast, driving blues of motion ("Lonely Wine," "Bitchin") and the plodding, languid blues of resignation ("TimeMarching On," "Camden County Blues").

Webb wisely makes no discernible effort to modernize the forms he's mining, choosing instead to accentuate the classic nature of his sound; it's easy to imagine these newly written songs being a half century old or more. And if "The good Lord in the sky/Says you ain't shit" (from "Lonely Wine") isn't the best summary of the blues written in the past 40 years, it's surely a top contender.—Sara Marcus

TK Webb plays Cake Shop Thu 8 and Sin-é Mon 12.