Boz Scaggs rarely does a less than wonderful album. His latest is an exemplary collection of smooth and soulful standards and a few other choice items including a song he wrote for his first album Boz Scaggs (1969) “I’ll Be Long Gone” and an Allen Toussaint song that was a hit for Irma Thomas, “It’s Still Raining”.
The first re-invented with brio and barely echoing the original, and the second – one of the high points of the album – in essence true to the New Orleans ballad, but sounding more chilled and jazzier, and there’s no harm in that. The trouble with this exceptional track – a little masterpiece – is that it puts everything that follows in the shade, on an album which at times feels a little samey.
Boz has done his share of soul, disco and…