Charlie Musselwhite - Sanctuary (2004)

Harmonica giant Charlie Musselwhite has evolved from stone traditionalist to blues experimentalist in recent years, with excursions into Tejano, country, and jazz. Now, with the help of Blind Boys of Alabama producer John Chelew, the 60-year-old has made a masterpiece that balances his music's Delta soul with sonic innovation. Musselwhite's world-weary singing is perfect for the haunting textures that the scraped and bell-toned guitar strings bring to "Train to Nowhere" and Randy Newman's "Burn Down the Cornfield," songs where the fog of danger hangs in the air like ectoplasm. Slide-guitar guests Sonny Landreth and Ben Harper bring rippling energy to the bad-luck story "Shootin' for the Moon" and the Harper-penned spiritual "Homeless Child." And the Blind Boys' zesty old-time harmonies turn Musselwhite's biographical "I Had Trouble" into a gospel-tent confession. But, if the voice of God appears anywhere, it's in Musselwhite's always lush and mesmerizing harmonica. --Ted Drozdowski