** Big Bill Morganfield

RISING SON

(Blind Pig)

Bill Morganfield utilizes dad Muddy Waters' real last name for his blue debut, which is pretty decent. Of course, any album with a crew built of great Chicago bluesmen -- bassist Bob Stroger, drummer Willie Smith, pianist Pinetop Perkins, guitarist Steady Rollin' Bob Margolin, harp player Paul Oscher -- has a good foundation. But how much does the younger Morganfield add to the proceedings? He does write sturdy songs -- "Dead Ass Broke" and "Left Hand Blues" -- in the rock-ribbed old Chicago style, mixing them with famous numbers from his father's generation. Yet though Morganfield adopts a vocal style (and a pencil moustache) unabashedly like his pop's, he has just a taste of that vibrant, alpha-male bellow that placed his father among the greatest, most powerful vocal conjurers the blues has seen. It's a long ways from Muddy's gritty grace and tidal power to Morganfield's workmanlike effort. Maybe that's not his fault. After all, as Muddy wrote: "You can't spend what you ain't got, and you can't lose some little girl you ain't never had."

-- Bill Kisliuk