Ernie Isley played with his family throughout the Seventies, when the Isley Brothers blended the drive and toughness of rock songs with R&B that caught the cool tenor of the era. Later, in the Eighties, Isley made a couple of restless, promising albums for CBS with his brother Marvin and brother-in-law Chris Jasper under the name Isley-Jasper-Isley, hitting with "Caravan of Love."

In all of this music, guitars and voices searched, seared and cut loose, moving on rolling rhythms and silky soul, charged with an almost sacred feeling about the inspirational wellsprings of craft. On Isley's first solo album, High Wire – a suite of songs about the exhilarations and betrayals of everyday life and the redemptive powers of romance and creativity – such elements come together to kick off the soul of the Nineties.

Working with producer Davitt Siger-son, programmers Phil Shenale and Dave Dassinger and a few other support musicians, Isley essentially has made a one-man-band album. High Wire manages to achieve all the virtues of this sort of approach – the consistent unwinding of a unified vision – without any constriction or sterile histrionics. On the suave, boundlessly energetic title track, Isley chants, "Keep doing what you got to do/You're in the pocket/Now follow through." On this album, he does just that.

For all the international or Minneapolis rhythmic foundations of "Song for the Muses" or "Deep Water," it's Isley's voice and guitar that progressively dominate High Wire. Vocally, he delivers with the tone of a strong whisper, the coordination of a track star and the attention span of a reader of Russian novels. In the articulate funk and fire of his guitar attacks, Isley plays like someone who grew up with Jimi Hendrix as a house guest – as Isley, in fact, did.

Isley enunciates lines and phrases on guitar with a first-rate singer's balanced command of flow, phrasing and placement. On "Diamond in the Rough," Isley's guitar switches from rhythm to lead as the song jumps and grooves along. When his clean, angular blues lines break out, they don't just sound, they extend rhythm. Moments like this never stop coming on High Wire.

Isley's lifelong dedication to his music, his enormous natural ability and his fulltime heart all find rich expression on this album. As profound a rock and soul fusion as we've seen in some time, High Wire is one honest voice speaking to many. It makes living feel good. (RS 572)

JAMES HUNTER