Costello’s throaty growl on “Feel Like I Ain’t Got A Home” is the perfect compliment to the snarl in his playing style. When his voice and guitar cut loose together in the latter half of the tune, the effect is spine tingling. “All This Time” is a world weary love song, brimming over with hope for the future. “Told Me A Lie” has a wonderful New Orleans feel, thanks to Adam Mewherter on sousaphone and Rich Iannucci on accordion. All of these tunes, and indeed most of the songs on the album, are Costello originals, showing the man to be more than a fine blues guitar player. Costello is a fully rounded artist with something to say.

Having shared the stage with blues greats such as B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and Bo Diddley, Costello now takes his rightful place alongside these legends, as the bearer of the torch for the next generation.

Payne’s smoky vocal will recall the best of Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett. He’s bold, brash, and full of heart. Whether detailing his long path to success on the album’s title track, swinging smoothly on the super jazzy “Uptown Woman Downtown Man,” or laying down the law on “Your Good Thing (Is About To Come To An End),” he is sincerity defined. He pours his entire soul into every line.

Guitarist Steve Edmonson is a funky monster on “Can I Hit It Again” and a head-bobbin’ blues master on “I Got A Mind To Go To Chicago.” His solo on the latter is electrifying. The bright flavor he adds to “Take A Chance On Me” is absolutely delightful. The badass irony he laces through “Mother-In-Law Blues” is brilliant.

Of course, the greatness of any soulful blues outfit goes far beyond the talent up front. The proof is in the skills of the entire group. Luckily, this band boasts a killer horn section, amazing rhythm players, and top notch piano and organ work. The Sweet Meet Horns (Carl Green on sax and Lech Wierzynski on trumpet), along with Jeff Turmes on baritone sax, deserve special mention. They give this disc its truly old school feel, harkening back to the glory days of the ’60s and ’70s.

Ramos employs several different instruments on this record, including electric guitar, Spanish guitar, baritone guitar, and most intriguingly, the bajo sexto, a 12-stringed cross between a guitar and a bass, often heard in norteño or conjunto music. The band’s leader and frontman, Jesus Cuevas, is both an appealing vocalist and a skilled accordion player. James Barrios on bass and Mike Molina on drums provide the irresistible, utterly danceable rhythm that backs every one of these tracks.

Displaying an admirable sense of history, Los Fabulocos takes on several well worn classics, spicing them up with a Cali-Mex kick. Ramos delivers his only lead vocal on Johnny Burnette’s rockabilly ballad “Lonesome Tears In My Eyes,” and it is a killer. He draws out every ounce of emotion from the melancholy lyrics. Not since the Crank-Tones 1998 recording has the tune received such a satisfying and powerful treatment. The Rockin’ Sidney composition “You Ain’t Nothin’ But Fine” retains its zydeco core, but also shines with Mexican and rhythm and blues hues. The heart-tugging Lloyd Price number “Just Because” is a swaying masterpiece, thanks to an incredibly touching arrangement and Cuevas’ heartfelt vocal.

The band’s original tunes are also pretty darned amazing. Three of the four members of Los Fabulocos are songwriters, each with their own highly individual voice. Ramos contributes a nifty little instrumental entitled “Burnin’ The Chicken” (aka “Quemando La Gallina”). A sizzling electrified Spanish guitar intro gives way to mad percussion and one incredible, mind blowing maximum-overdrive riff after another. Jesus Cuevas juxtaposes sentimentality with a finger-snappin’ beat on “If You Know.” He underpins this poetically written she-done-me-wrong tale with his flawless squeezebox technique. Cuevas also chimes in with “Day After Day,” a rollicking rhythm and blues ditty that sounds like something the original Yardbirds might have played back in their days as a pumpin’, thumpin’ bar band. On this one, Cuevas actually manages to utilize his accordion as a legitimate blues instrument, making it wail and cry with all the forlorn truth of the finest Delta bluesmen. Bassist James Barrios dazzles with another brilliant musical hybrid, the Tennessee whiskey soaked “You Keep Drinkin’.” The lyrics are pure honky tonk, while the arrangement mixes swinging country and the best of the traditional Mexican styles.

When critics talk about American roots music, this is what they mean. Los Fabulocos is a prime example of the magnificent working class art this immigrant nation can produce.

This latest offering finds the boys following up last year’s tribute to Meet The Beatles, Meet The Smithereens, with an equally fab nod to all those marvelous Beatles flipsides. Once again, Messrs. Babjak, Diken, Dinizio, and Jornacion demonstrate a deep understanding of what made these songs so great in the first place.

No guitarist is more in tune with the sometimes rough, sometimes sweet tone of early George Harrison than Jim Babjak. He captures Harrison’s wonderful talent for surf on the instrumental “Cry For Shadow,” and he nails the soaring romantic delicacy of “Ask Me Why.” His folky jangle on “I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party” is sheer delight. And on “Some Other Guy” he rocks the roof right off the place.

Vocalist Pat Dinizio’s slightly smoky, laid back style is perfectly suited to this material. He doesn’t sound like Lennon or McCartney, but instead inhabits the spirit of these songs with his own heart and soul. “If I Fell” is absolutely exquisite, brimming over with emotion. “P.S. I Love You” is equally touching. On “There’s A Place,” he strikes just the right balance of vulnerability and strength.

Drummer Dennis Diken not only provides the ideal backing for these tunes, he also steps up to the mic to belt out an appropriately hard edged lead vocal on “Slow Down.” In the grand Ringo tradition, Diken makes the most of his moment in the spotlight, kickin’ it with charm and fury.

And speaking of drums, this record marks an event of historical proportions: Andy White, the session drummer who played on the original Beatles recording of “P.S. I Love You,” once more provides the beat, with Diken taking on Ringo’s original studio role — shaking the maracas.

The truly remarkable thing about this tribute, aside from the first rate performance by The Smithereens, is the fact that all these songs are indeed B-sides. Very few pop groups can claim such an enormous catalog of brilliant tracks. When it came to The Beatles, even the B-sides were classics.

The clanking, lurching genius of tunes such as “The Dirty Third” and “Old Pale Face Goes To The Theater” definitely set the band apart. The blues and jazz-tinged “Cities Of The South” moves like a mountain lion sizing up its prey. “The Honeyspot Motor Lodge” comes in raging, then kicks back to a dizzying sway, spinning images of greasy sheets and ashtrays piled high with cigarette butts. “A Dry Night In Chambersburg” is a musical cousin to ’60s rock and roll, while still holding on to the band’s revivalist roots.

The closest the Resurrectionists come to the Slim Cessna sound is on “Jesus Loves You,” and this seems more like homage than imitation. Clearly, these boys respect Slim, and see a kindred soul there. But their own sound is genuine and honest, underpinned by a love for country, blues, jazz, and weird history.

For those who prefer their Americana with a side order of strangeness, The Resurrectionists are the perfect bizarre blue plate special. With every bite, you get something a little different, and by the time you’re done, you’ll be more than satisfied.

This elegant coffee table book, including two CDs of music, spans an incredible seventy years of the label, from its beginnings to the present, through the eyes of two master photographers. The images, many of them never seen before, capture the major artists in modern jazz at historic recording sessions and other contexts. In recognition of this unique collection, the Jewish Museum of Berlin plans a special exhibition of photographs from the book for the fall of 2009.

Designed by award winning designer Ingo Wolff, the book features essays by producer Michael Cuscuna, Blue Note president Bruce Lundvall, recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder, and jazz historian Ashley Kahn.

Wolff’s Rolleiflex caught each important development from traditional and swing-era styles of the 40’s through bebop, hard bop, soul, avant-garde, and even the first sounds of fusion.

Photographs include jazz legends Sidney Bechet and Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey and Horace Silver, Miles Davis and Clifford Brown, and Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane — breadth staggering in its historical importance. The story continues with jazz greats Jackie McLean, Herbie Hancock, Dexter Gordon, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Grant Green, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Andrew Hill, Cassandra Wilson and Joe Lovano.

Wolff’s iconic black and white photographs, intimate, relaxed, and respectful of the musicians and their craft, raised jazz players to a heroic level. His point of view endures today: musicians intensely working on their instruments, peering at sheet music or talking among themselves, playing the music with eyes gazing off into space or closed in musical rapture.

In the early nineties, Blue Note found Wolff’s spiritual descendent in Jimmy Katz whose style has its own distinctive signature. Like Wolff, Katz can catch the right moment, frame it, light it and shoot it in a fraction of a second. Their careers have run along parallel lines: both picked up the camera early, fell under the spell of jazz, and established a mature, visual signature. Like a Wolff image, a Katz portrait is instantly recognizable.

Ashley Kahn writes, “Seeing, as the saying goes, is believing. In the photography of both Wolff and Katz there is a deep, shared reverence for the music, captured in a way that makes us all fortunate witnesses to some private and truly historic moments.” Bruce Lundvall comments, “This book is the nicest 70th Anniversary gift that Blue Note could get.”