Taking their name from a Sonny Boy Williamson song and their cue from the Traveling Wilburys, Little Village cofounders John Hiatt, Nick Lowe, Ry Cooder and Jim Keltner use this soulful team effort to flaunt their mutual tastes rather than flex their muscles. Hiatt, Lowe and Cooder may be renowned for their roots-conscious solo ventures, but Little Village is no sloppy riff-fest: From the loping Texas boogie of "Action" to the sweet, Temptations-inspired yearnings of Lowe's "Fool Who Knows," these eleven group-written numbers distill each member's distinctive trademarks into a convincing collaboration that oozes with the slide-guitar-fueled angst, playful pop instincts and passionate Memphis soul grooves that sparked their first gathering as the backing band on Hiatt's 1987 comeback, Bring the Family.

Cooder's fiery guitar work and Keltner's inventive percussion tracks – a quirky blend of drums and syncopated samples – propel the taut arrangements. But Hiatt's husky voice emerges as the group's most prominent and affecting element, whether he's howling with salacious glee on "Solar Sex Panel" ("I'm a love regenerator ... an ultraviolet penetrator") or crooning the disarmingly tender "Don't Think About Her," a comforting ode to a heartsick buddy.

That touching ballad – along with the calypso-flavored "Do You Want My Job" (narrated by an impoverished fisherman forced to take work on a tanker that dumps nuclear waste into the ocean) – easily overshadows such raucous throwaways as "She Runs Hot" and "Don't Bug Me," giving Little Village an emotional and stylistic depth rarely reached on supergroup projects. (RS 624)

DAVID OKAMOTO