*** The Jimmy Rogers All-Stars

BLUES BLUES BLUES

(Atlantic)

Most major-label blues albums these days feature guest appearances by rock stars or hot young up-and-comers. And most all of them suck. Consider B.B. King's boring Deuces Wild or Jonny Lang's horrifying duet with Buddy Guy on Heavy Love.

So here's a nice surprise and a fitting tribute to the Chicago blues linchpin Jimmy Rogers, perhaps the most underrated genius of the idiom. Rogers, who died last year, just as this album was being completed, authored dozens of classics (including "Sweet Home Chicago"), and he taught Muddy Waters the tricks of mastering electric guitar. He still sounds terrific here, his voice outdistancing partners like Eric Clapton and Jeff Healy, even fellow blues legend Lowell Fulson, in character and strength. His playing's perfect as a hot night over cold beers at the Windy City's famed Checkerboard Lounge. The surprise is that guests from Jimmy Page to Mick Jagger (singing better than he has on any Stones album in years) -- as well as respected bluesmen Carey Bell and Kim Wilson (both on harmonica) Johnnie Johnson (piano), Ted Harvey (drums), and Jimmy D. Lane (Rogers's hotshot guitarist son) -- all play by Rogers's basic blues rules. And they all sound so good. The only clam is Robert Plant's vocal ad-libs over "Gonna Shoot You Right Down," which trip into campy Zeppelin-isms mighty quick.

-- Ted Drozdowski