Charlie Musselwhite - In My Time (1993)

In My Time places the 50-year-old harmonica whiz and blues veteran in a variety of settings: there are two unaccompanied songs, two songs with gospel harmonies from the Blind Boys of Alabama, seven songs with an L.A. blues band led by Mike "Junior" Watson, and five songs with Musselwhite's road trio. Holding the session together is Musselwhite's imposing personality, dignified and all business. Musselwhite's collaboration with the Five Blind Boys on a slow, minimalist version of the Dixie Hummingbirds' "Bedside of a Neighbor" is a stunning reminder of where blues and gospel overlap. The album's highlights, though, come on the songs with Watson's quartet, especially when ex-Blaster pianist Gene Taylor creates a boogie-woogie beat under Roosevelt Sykes's "Casual Friend" or a Latin bounce under Musselwhite's "When It Rains It Pours" for the singer to fall into. --Geoffrey Himes