Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown’s “LONG WAY HOME” album…

On LONG WAY HOME, Texas roots music legend Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown augments his usual hard-driving studio ensemble with a star-studded roster of guests, several of whose songs appear on the album. On the butt-shaking opener, “Blues Power,” song authors Eric Clapton and Leon Russell sit in on guitar and vocals/electric piano respectively, while Bobby Charles and Maria Muldaur swap singing duties with Brownon Charles’s countrified ballad “Here I Go Again.” In a spare, spooky acoustic reading, John D. Loudermilk performs his own “Tobacco Road,” with six-string backing from Brown. LONG WAY HOME proves Brown to be a masterful interpreter of other people’s material. A deliriously jumping read of Clifford Brown’s “The Blues Walk,” complete with fat horn section and Leon Russell’s surging boogie electric piano sends the energy meter into the red. Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice,” featuring Clapton on guitar and Brown and Muldaur sharing the mike, is cooked up with slow, gospel-tinged feeling. As always, the level of musicianship is top-notch, as is evidenced by Brown’s two solo acoustic instrumentals, and the violin vs. mandolin face-off with Ry Cooder on “Dockside Boogie.” Everyone involved sounds like they’re having fun, and their energy and enthusiasm is infectious.