Since Detroit-born tenorist JD Allen's solo recording debut in 1999, this unobtrusively fine musician has figured in DownBeat Critics' Polls, led over a dozen albums, and worked as a sideman for artists from Meshell Ndegeocello and Nigel Kennedy to Dave Douglas. Americana Vol 2 engagingly revisits the rootsy folk-derived agenda of its 2016 predecessor, with Allen's long-time trio partners on bass and drums, but now with exhilarating guitarist Charlie Hunter added on eight of its 11 tracks.

The saxophonist's economy of line, understated melodic twists, and nuanced solidity of tone make almost all of this music a compelling listen, and the band both complements him, and pulls and bends the grooves around him with canny provocativeness. On the traditional song ‘This World is a Mean World’, and the country standard ‘You Don't Know Me’, Allen's sound is rounded and heavy, with Hunter's guitar whirring and clanging against him on the former, and the tenor echoing the imperious command of a Sonny Rollins ballad delivery on the latter. Rudy Royston's arrhythmic drum patterns under Hunter's repeating guitar hook on ‘Up South’ are languidly dazzling; ‘Hammer and Hoe’ is a driving work-song that spurs Allen into mix of tone-bending wails and weaving double-time; ‘The Battle of Blair Mountain’ is a smoky tenor meditation over a pulsing groove; ‘Down South’ an earthily bluesy vehicle for Hunter and Allen in tandem.

Americana Vol 2 celebrates both African-American organised-labour history and timeless musical values, but with a vividly contemporary take on both.