Burnin'

It's the second Ron Hacker & the Hacksaws album in about as many years, following the Shad Harris-distinguished Back Door Man in late 2000, and it shows even further development of Ron Hacker's relentless and relentlessly authentic driving blues.

How authentic? Hacker covers Elmore James, Robert Johnson, Fred McDowell, Yank Rachel and Sonny Boy Williamson. He lays down the fine original title track instrumental (you can hear the flame) and the autobiographical Mailman Blues and Prison Mind.

If you don't get wood from Billy Gibbons' Fool for Your Stockings or Yank Rachel's Peach Tree Blues you've got something wrong with your apparatus. This latest version by Ron of Fred McDowell's Red Cross Store is his best and the best anywhere, and Hacker's band's groove on Sonny Boy Williamson's Welfare Store is unparalleled.

That's Stranger Blues you're hearing (if your browser works like ours).

That band consists of Artis "A.J." Joyce on bass and Ronnie Smith on drums. That's all they need, that and the driving electric guitar of Ron Hacker.

Burnin' was produced by Ron Hacker and Hacksaw Records. It was recorded at Drake's Studio in San Francisco by Drake Levin, who mixed it too. Mastered by Mark Willsher, who also mastered Johnny Nitro's new CD, Trouble.