Tommy Castro, Jimmy Hall & Lloyd Jones - Triple Trouble (2003)

With billing divided equally between three midlevel headliners, Triple Trouble simmers without ever quite catching fire. Despite backing from the former Stevie Ray Vaughan rhythm section and a clever gospel rearrangement of the Beatles classic "Help," performances tend to drag. No one seems to work up much of a sweat, and guitar solos add up to strings of ancient clichés, absent the intensity they once conveyed. Perhaps if Reese Wynans' organ had been mixed higher, some churchy element might have pepped things up; as it is, bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton come through loud, clear, and listless. A feeling persists throughout this album that if this group had delivered this set before a rowdy crowd in some beery backwoods dive, results would have been far more persuasive. As it is, Triple Trouble is hardly trouble at all.