Isn’t this how it always goes? A local boy makes good, but instead of recording in his hometown of St. Louis to celebrate the town’s 250th anniversary, he heads off to Canada, holes up with a bunch of local alt. blues boys, ropes in some long time pals on the road as they are passing through and creates a contemporary, electric blues masterpiece celebrating the city with originals and important covers. Starting off by breathing life into “I Get Evil” that it hasn’t felt since Albert King passed and turning up the heat from there, this is another bar raising winner for Byrnes in a decade of bar raising winners. Hot stuff throughout, done right, done the way it should be that shows blues continues to be in good hands, going forward and going backward. Check it out. – Chris Spector