Horn-Heavy Blues

** 1/2 NEIL YOUNG & THE BLUENOTES. “This Note’s For You.” Reprise. Neil Young singing the blues? His fans are the ones who ought to sing the blues, watching the once formidable rocker frittering away his career in the 1980s by adopting and abandoning a new musical style just about every time he puts out a record.

Now Young’s got a horn-heavy blues band called the Bluenotes--but is there any reason to think these guys will still be here a year or two from now?

Well, maybe. This time Young does seem to be having more fun than he did in his rockabilly and synthesizer phases, partly because the mixture of shuffles and barrelhouse blues-rockers jacked up by a big-band blues horn section, and intimate, jazzy parlor tunes offers him a lot more meat to chew on.

Much of the music isn’t too far removed from the raw rock ‘n’ roll of a Young classic like 1979’s “Rust Never Sleeps.” And it gives plenty of space for the characteristically skewed, jagged guitar solos that have always been a large part of Young’s appeal. Good thing, too, that he can make his guitar talk, ‘cause this man is not a blues singer. Not nohow.

Alternately playful, biting and moving, “This Note’s for You” sounds as if Young has been given an inspirational kick in the pants. But there are also moments here to suggest that he’s still a dilettante who flits across the musical spectrum because it keeps him from having to make a full commitment to his music.

Too many of the arrangements are blues-by-the-numbers that don’t have much swing or bite. If you want to hear what an ‘80s musician can do with the blues tradition, you’re better off with Robert Cray or Joe Louis Walker. Folks interested in hearing a white guy front a big-blues-band horn section have a more authoritative alternative in Roomful of Blues.

At a certain point, a blues singer has failed unless he has the ability to make the audience believe him--and that’s an ability that Neil Young has simply lost.

CHECK LIST

**** Great Balls of Fire

*** Good Vibrations

** Maybe Baby

* Running on Empty