Blue Again! (CD - 2009)

The title Blue Again is a giveaway: like many old rock & rollers, Mick Fleetwood returns to his first love -- the blues -- in 2009, forming the aptly named Mick Fleetwood Blues Band with former Mac running mate Rick Vito on guitar and vocals, Lenny Castellanos on bass, and Mark Johnstone on keyboards. The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band hit the road in 2008 and Blue Again captures their February 2008 show at the Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis, MO, which was a gig not unlike the others on the tour: the group ran through several old Peter Green standards like "Rattlesnake Shake" and "Black Magic Woman" and a bunch of originals by Vito, ending with a cover of Elmore James' "Shake Your Moneymaker." Unless the new tunes by Vito are counted -- and arguably they should, as they fit nicely with Green's -- there are no surprises here, just straight-up blues-rock played by old pros who are steadily whittling away the rock to get closer to a purer blues. If Vito's singing is a little bit too smooth and the execution occasionally a bit too on the nose, there is nevertheless an energy and vigor to the spirit here that is wholly welcome and, when it all comes together, even infectious. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine minimize