CBO Band Director Scotty Barnhart made the thank-you speech when the Blues Foundation’s inducted Count Basie into their Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis in 2019. He says he knew then that the CBO’s next recording should have "at its roots the sound of the Delta Blues", and here it is. Twelve tracks in all, with selected blues artists and instrumentalists, all cushioned by the mighty sound of the full orchestra, the arrangements by Andy Farber and Kris Johnson.

Mississippi-born in 1976 and initially a gospel specialist, ‘Mr Sipp’ Castro gets two tracks and deserves it, his lively ‘Let’s Have a Good Time’ certainly setting the scene while in his ‘Dirty Mississippi Blues’ he clearly knows of what he sings, his BB King-influenced guitar solos here and elsewhere, a genuine album adornment. Thinking of BBK, some of these tracks, like Rush’s raw and very funky ‘Boogie In The Dark’ have the strong shuffle groove and riff-based approach of King’s own later bands, albeit somewhat augmented.

The 89-year-old Rush adds his very idiomatic blues harmonica as does Musselwhite on Copeland’s shaky version of KoKo Taylor’s immortal ’I’m A Woman’ with its memorably assertive line, ‘I can make love to a crocodile’, Guy adding some nice guitar.

It’s good to hear the deep-voiced Jamie Davis (who toured with Basie) on Muddy Waters’ ‘Look What You’ve Done’ evoking a time when Basie and singer Joe Williams combined to make the headlines, with ‘Mr Sipp’ again great on guitar. Lavette sounds hoarse and over-blown on ‘Stormy Monday’ (how one longed for T-Bone to be still around) but Farber’s arrangement is just right and Lawrence has a good, bustling tenor solo. Bradford gives Lil Armstrong’s timeless ‘Just For A Thrill’ a strident push and Benson finishes with Jack McDuff’s ‘Rock Candy’ - no vocal, just superb jazz guitar from him, the band surging ahead, extra solos by Floyd, Lawrence, and band boss Barnhart. So, a great project, well realised, the outcomes variable but compelling, with ‘Mr Sipp’ a new name to celebrate.