Elvin Bishop - Ace In The Hole (1995)

Unlike so many young blues revivalists, who take a much-too-serious attitude toward the blues, Elvin Bishop brings a playful, sassy approach to the music he's been playing since he joined the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 1963. To several songs on his 1995 album, Ace in the Hole, Bishop adds spoken monologues which have little to do with rap and a lot to do with the sort of tongue-in-cheek, preaching recitations delivered by such R&B singers as Joe Tex and Solomon Burke. When Bishop gives a sermon on the distribution of wealth in his own "Give Me Some of That Money," or on the faithfulness of the married in Dave Bartholomew's "Another Mule Kickin' in Your Stall," his droll delivery provides the perfect counterpoint to the sparkling playing by the guitarist and his top-notch road band. The horn-powered sextet also turns in four high-octane instrumentals, including versions of Roosevelt Sykes's "Driving Wheel" and Bishop's one pop hit, "Fooled Around and Fell in Love." --Geoffrey Himes