Blue Highway

Singer/songwriter Angela Strehli has been a fixture on the Austin blues scene for decades now, but as her first studio album in seven years demonstrates, her range extends beyond the blues and well into country, soul, and roots rock. At 60 years old, her voice is strong and slightly gritty around the edges, and her delivery is powerful and authoritative. She manages to take material like the Ann Peebles classic "Slipped, Tripped and Fell in Love" and Ernie K-Doe's "Hello My Lover" and make it all her own (though she has help on the latter from singer Paul Thorn), and her originals are mostly quite good as well. (Her tribute to the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, titled "SRV," is sweet but maybe just a bit on the overly sentimental side.) Fellow blueswomen Marcia Ball and Maria Muldaur join her on the rollicking title song. But the album's finest moment comes at the very end; the last track is a live version of the old blues song "C.O.D.," performed by Strehli with Vaughan and his band, Double Trouble, at Carnegie Hall in 1985. The combination of her powerful voice and his blockbusting guitar is amazing. Recommended.