The Rolling Stones
Blue & Lonesome
(Interscope)

Blues music has always been at the heart of what The Rolling Stones were about; it’s part of what drew them together in the first place when Mick Jagger and Keith Richards bonded at a railroad station over a Muddy Waters record. This being the case, it’s fitting that after more than 50 years of playing and recording together, they are back with their first studio album in over 10 years featuring a host of great blues covers on Blue & Lonesome. Happily, this is not an embarrassing aging-rocker, over-reaching, cliche album. It’s a really solid mix of 12 great covers from such classic blues musicians as Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, and Magic Sam. The album shows off some of what the Stones do best with tracks like “I Can’t Quit You Baby,” which also features the blues maestro Eric Clapton on lead guitar, and “Ride ‘Em On Down,” which feels totally natural with the Stones at the helm. This sense of ease isn’t just the band’s comfort with the material, it’s their many years of jamming together and it seems like they are still a well-oiled machine recording the album in just three days. Both Stones and blues fans will be overjoyed with the new material because it’s emotive, enthusiastic, and it sounds like the guys are having fun.