Arguably the greatest bluesman alive, Buddy Guy proves unstoppable. Recording half of Slippin' In with his own Chicago band and Chuck Berry's piano ace Johnnie Johnson, he then turns loose with Stevie Ray Vaughan's former backup band, Double Trouble. Guitarists from Clapton to Van Halen have marveled at Guy's Strat work (check the full-bore workout, "7-11"); if anything, his singing ("Please Don't Drive Me Away," "Cities Need Help") is even more eloquent, fiery and fully human.

If Guy is basic blues polished to a gloss, Junior Kimbrough is the blues at its rawest – it's a galvanic revelation these days to hear music sprung so cleanly from its roots. Chulahoma, Miss., is home to Kimbrough, and only that kind of harsh, lush, ancient South could spawn these blues. An electric outfit, the Soul Blues Boys power charge such slayers as "Lonesome in My Home" and "Pull Your Clothes Off." But this elemental sound echoes back – all the way to the gutbucket founders Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson.

What's truly startling about the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion is the psychic connection they achieve with a vibe like Kimbrough's. Startling because these are arty New York white boys, Spencer the ex-guru of the noise-mongering experimentalists Pussy Galore. But with second guitarist Judah Bauer and drummer Russell Simins on rhythmfests like "Dang" and "Orange," he wails fractured postmodern bluesoid stuff that's as weird, fun and spooky as original blues-dripping rockabilly. (RS 698/699)

PAUL CORIO