Come On Home

Having sat most of the '80s out, Boz Scaggs returns in the mid-'90s as an urbane blues crooner, effectively bringing his music full circle from the sleek, disco-friendly pop of his '70s commercial zenith to the purer R&B of his late '60s debut. Come Home is a soulful valentine to the same models that informed that first outing, juxtaposing solid new originals against venerable songs from Jimmy Reed, Earl King Johnson, Sonny Boy Williamson, Willie Mitchell, and other blues and soul masters from Memphis, Texas, and Chicago. Scaggs, always a model of taste (who else could have produced disco hits that still sound stylish), juggles two blue-chip rhythm sections with strategic infusions of soulful brass, greasy organ, and Scaggs's own deep-fried guitar work sustaining the set's bluesy accents. --Sam Sutherland