(Alligator)

www.alligator.com

For the past few years, Cali-born blues guitarist Lindell, winner of the 1999 John Lennon Songwriting Competition, has put forth a kind of rootsier, blue-eyed-soul take on G. Love or J. J. Grey, although his records - notably last year's Low on Cash, Rich in Love, his second platter for Alligator - have been just as surefire party-starters as those by Mssrs. Love or Grey. As a result, he's been embraced equally by purists and jamband devotees. On Gulf Coast Highway, though, Lindell's really come into his own, with a sound that's instantly identifiable and a voice that's just getting better each night he takes the stage.

True to its title, Gulf Coast Highway is steeped in the musics of New Orleans and the surrounding region (Lindell moved to the Crescent City about a decade ago, and for the album he employed a host of N'awlins musical talent including Galactic drummer Stanton Moore and bassist Robert Mercurio). Among the album's most overt homages: "This Love is Gonna Last," a skittery slice of uptempo R&B cut from Allen Toussaint or Dr. John cloth; "I Can Get Off on You," an old Waylon Jennings-Willie Nelson composition that subtly shifts its rhythmic and melodic focus from Tex-Mex to Basin Street; and "Raw Doggin'," a funky instrumental that's pure Meters.

Elsewhere, Lindell dips into hot buttered Memphis soul ("Love and Compassion," a call for you-know-what spiced by Lindell's urgent singing and some Stax-worthy horn charts) then dives headlong into James Brown territory (the staccato funk of "The Look," featuring female backing vox). Ultimately, Gulf Coast Highway is a funk/soul/R&B trainspotter's delight that stakes out territory for Lindell as one of his generation's premiere curators of these indigenous American artforms.

Standout Tracks: "I Can Get Off On You," "The Look," "Raw Doggin'" FRED MILLS