Lucas Continues on His Path With Delta Force

At 34, Lucas may be old enough to be Jonny Lang’s father, but by any reasonable measure, this local veteran is still part of the youth movement in blues. His sixth release since 1990 finds Lucas writing nearly an album’s worth of his own songs for the first time, without showing the slightest wavering in his commitment to traditional blues.

If there is a crossover attempt here, it’s happening in reverse as Lucas tries to drag Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile” back over the line from rock to blues by paring it down to Delta-style acoustic basics.

The other songs are Lucas originals. He shows again that he can put traditional forms to good personal use in songs that vividly tell his own story. “I Miss Being High,” a dark, sinuous, Latin-tinged blues redolent of seedy alleyways, is his wry farewell to hard-drugging days. “50 Pounds of Bone” is a jaunty and funny ode to the rotund Lucas’ own ample appetite, a subject he has handled deliciously before in “What Happened to My Shoes?” and “Big Man Mambo.”

Like Godzilla to restaurants I’m roaming the land,

I’m just 50 pounds of bone,

Wrapped up in 200 pounds of ham.

But “Completely Blue” doesn’t prove that Lucas is completely ready to carry an album as a songwriter. Some of it is standard-issue stuff about relationship woes, lacking the freshness and highly personal imagery Lucas has brought to such prime originals as “Across the River” and “Usin’ Man Blues,” the title cuts of his first two albums. A political song, “Pain in Our Cities,” substitutes abstract liberal punditry for the personal guided tour of a scarred urban landscape that could have made Lucas’ point with vivid illustration.

He needs to work on his follow-through as a writer, but in every other way, Lucas is well-equipped to vault to the front rank of traditional blues.

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His voice remains a rich, grainy wonder, full of authority yet naturally playful and convincingly vulnerable. His harmonica playing has never sounded better. Among many highlights are the gusts of air he sends swirling with a chromatic harp on the title track, a slow blues that’s a platform for superb soloing all around. Guitarists Alex Schultz (formerly of Rod Piazza & the Mighty Flyers) and David Melton consistently whip up solos Eric Clapton wouldn’t throw away, and Fred Kaplan lends an accomplished hand on piano and organ. The band played live in the studio, without overdubs, and producer Joe Harley and engineer Michael C. Ross captured it in sound that has astonishing immediacy, presence, clarity and warmth.

Lucas has been traveling the world lately as a member of that venerable blues institution Canned Heat. Factor in his solid string of solo albums, and he is building an ideal resume for an eventual high-profile career. Given the exquisite sound and album artwork he has enjoyed in his long stay on the San Clemente-based AudioQuest, he has been grazing on the best the music industry’s grass-roots have to offer.

(Available from AudioQuest Music, PO Box 6040, San Clemente, CA 92674)

* Robert Lucas and the Locomotives play tonight at La Vida Roadhouse, 6105 Carbon Canyon Road, Brea. 10 p.m. $7. (714) 996-0720.

Ratings range from * (poor) to **** (excellent), with three stars denoting a solid recommendation.