Come Back Baby in Bloomington, MN

Bluesman
Linsey Alexander
made the leap to
Delmark Records
for 2012's
Been There Done That
. It was a natural home for the Chicago-born guitarist, so it's not surprising everybody was ready for a second bite at the apple, one that comes in the form of 2014's
Come Back Baby
. Working with a combo that contains guitarist
Breezy Rodio
, keyboardist
Roosevelt Purifoy
, bassist
Greg McDaniel
, and drummer
Pooky Styx
-- the anchor that's occasionally augmented by a horn section and, on three cuts, harpist
Billy Branch
--
Alexander
achieves a nice balance between classic Windy City grinds and fresher, funkier workouts. If the bright punch of
Robert Koester
's production seems to suit the funkier stuff a bit better than the slow, dirty crawls,
sells both styles, sounding equally committed when he's digging into the thick "I Got a Woman" (an original, not a
Ray Charles
cover) or leering with the verve of a younger man on "Booze and Blues," "Booty Call," and "Funky Feeling." He may be "Too Old to Be a New Fool," as he sings one of his slow 12-bar originals, but he hardly seems spent here. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine