Various Artists - This Is The Blues, Volume Three (2010)

Volume three of Eagle Records' four-disc This Is The Blues series is a 15-track compilation of blues and blues-rock performances featuring talent that ranges from the well-known (Rory Gallager, Gary Moore) and the obscure (Mick Clarke) to the unlikely (Ken Hensley). With a roster that is decidedly British, these tracks were culled from at least four different previously-released compilation albums. Still, This Is The Blues, Volume Three is another excellent addition to the four-part series, the collection certain to entertain the veteran blues fan and newcomer alike.

This Is The Blues, Volume Three jumps from the first note, the Peter Green Splinter Group delivering an inspired performance of John Lee Hooker's classic "Crawlin' King Snake." Taken from an obscure 2002 Hooker tribute album, From Clarksdale To Heaven (as are a number of songs here), Green's gravely vocals can't match John Lee's soulful growl, but they sound great accompanied by Green's imaginative lead work and Nigel Watson's spry open-tuned guitar.

From here, the album takes a left turn, the collaboration of Foghat's "Lonesome" Dave Peverett and Rod Price with Southside Johnny Lyons on Green's "If You Be My Baby" transforming the song into a raucous blues-rock bonfire. Taken from the 2003 compilation Man of the World: Reflections on Peter Green (the source of several other songs), the performance features plenty of Price's scorching lead guitar and Lyons' Little Walter-inspired harpwork.

Blues-rock guitarist Gary Moore teams with legendary bassist Jack Bruce for a dark-hued reading of Hooker's "Serves Me Right To Suffer," Moore's mournful vocals matched by his powerful fretwork and Bruce's molten bass lines. Another of the album's surprises comes courtesy of Procol Harum's Gary Brooker, hooking up with guitarist Andy Fairweather Low for a rollicking take of Hooker's "Little Wheel" that leaps from your speakers with energy.

Other highlights here include Irish blues-rock guitarist Rory Gallagher's hypnotic slide-guitar riffs ripping through Green's "Showbiz Blues" with reckless aplomb; and guitarist Mick Abrahams (Jethro Tull, Blodwyn Pig) filling Green's "The Same Way" with fiery guitar licks and an arrangement that falls somewhere between 1970s arena-rock and soaring 1950s-styled Chicago blues. Both songs were culled from Rattlesnake Guitar, yet another Peter Green tribute, this one from 1995.

Unheralded British blues-rock guitarist Mick Clarke delivers on James Cotton's Chicago blues gem "One More Mile," his measured, nuanced guitarwork matched by Lou Martin's audacious piano-pounding. The song is taken from Knights of the Blues Table, a 1997 tribute album to British bluesmen Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies. On the other hand, former Uriah Heep keyboardist Ken Hensley's piano-heavy defiling of Robert Johnson's "Hellhound On My Trail" would have been better left on the cutting room floor.

To wash the sound of Hensley's abomination from your ears, guitarist Larry Mitchell puts the wrecking ball to Green's signature "Fleetwood Mac," his screeching six-string leading an often-bombastic, sometimes mesmerizing romp through this overlooked song. The album closes with Jeff Beck and the gospel standard "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" featuring the divinely-inspired vocals of Siggi Josiah and Earl Green soaring above Beck's funky yet reverent leads. (Eagle Records, released July 20, 2010)

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