by Rick Anderson
If you just can't get enough of that Duke Robillard, then this is definitely the album for you: two discs full of songs and instrumentals in a variety of styles, from the raunchy Delta sound of Bob Dylan's &Everything Is Broken& to the slippery New Orleans funk of &Look Out,& and from the jump blues instrumental &Bounce for Billy& to the straight-ahead jazz of Wardell Gray's &Stoned.& Robillard is still no great shakes as a lyricist, and his singing is perfectly fine without ever being exceptional. But his stinging guitar solos are always a pleasure to hear, and he writes a very fine head -- &Bounce for Billy& is a classic period piece, and his writing on &Anything It Takes& is also very impressive. There are moments that feel just a bit like filler on this 23-track program, such as the extraneous Bo Diddley cover (&Who Do You Love&) and a by-the-numbers blues exercise called &You're Killin' Me Baby.& (And did he not notice how completely his &Sweet Thing& evokes the Sesame Street theme?) But he does both Booker T. and T-Bone Walker complete justice on his versions of their songs, and he even manages to take a Tom Waits number and make it his own. This album is a very solid value for the money overall.