This American-born singer-guitarist was a working bluesman in the late Sixties. With better luck, he might have been a revival star like John Hammond or Taj Mahal. Instead, Seasick Steve (real name Steven Wold) has won recent acclaim in the U.K. without easing up on his Delta-purist vigor. His first U.S. album has the fun and fury of his gigs, plus bass and mandolin work by Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones, a notable seal of approval. There's gratitude, too, in "Days Gone" and the ballad "It's a Long Long Way," the sound of a man who knows his fortune came just in time.

Listen to "You Can't Teach an Old Dog New Tricks":

Related
• Photos: The Week's Hottest Live Shots

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."