Legend Live
No one can lay a more credible claim to the blues legacy ofRobert Johnsonthan his one and only student, 89-year-old legend-in-his-own-right Robert Lockwood Jr. And few, if any, can conjure up the original sound and sensibility of Johnson's music as expertly as Lockwood can, armed only with his trusty 12-string guitar. Lockwood received hands-on mentoring from Johnson, who taught him to play guitar from age 11, and he's now played Johnson's songs a half-century longer than their short-lived creator did. His experienced grasp of their nuances is unmatched. Lockwood's use of the 12-string guitar serves to distance and differentiate him from those who were influenced, but not actually instructed, by Johnson. His approach on Johnson classics like "Sweet Home Chicago," the first song Lockwood learned from the legend, and "From Four Until Late" slows the songs down from their modern semi-boogie tempo to create plaintive personal statements. Lockwood offers more than just Johnson, opening with an evocative rendition of Texas folk-blues heroMance Lipscomb's "Meet Me in the Bottom" and mixing in threeLeroy Carrtunes (including "How Long Blues") plus a couple of songs fromRoosevelt Sykes, an artist with whom he recorded  during his stint as a session star at Chess Records in the '50s.--Michael Point