One of the hallmarks of this string of albums is that, astonishingly, King has been producing himself for the first time in over 50 years! And he's been recording with his touring band, many of whom have been with him for decades, in an intimate Louisiana studio. So when I heard that B.B. was making a CD with Eric Clapton in L.A. and that Clapton (with Simon Climie) was producing, I got the Worried Blues.

Clapton, of course, is a man who needs no introduction. The first time I heard him play, with weeping sustain and stinging grit on Cream's "I Feel Free," it literally changed my life. But old Slowhand's back catalog - in addition to its many classic tunes - also contains its fair share of mediocre filler and near misses. In contrast, I'm happy to report that after hearing only a few bars of this new collaboration, my fears were laid to rest. Riding With The King, recorded earlier this year, finds each artist coaxing and conjuring the best out of each other.

Let's face it, when you cop a B.B. King album you pretty much know what's going to be on the menu. Clapton works from a broader palette. As a result, we get the pure pleasure of hearing King get loose in a refreshing variety of styles - including the wicked funk of "Marry You," the exuberant Allman Brothers influenced southern rock of "I Wanna Be," and the Stax R&B of Sam and Dave's "Hold On I'm Coming." The title track, written by John Hiatt, is a swampy rocker that contains the memorable lines (spoken in a voice-over by King): "I stepped out of Mississippi when I was ten years old/With a suit cut sharp as a razor and a heart made of gold/I had a guitar hanging just about waist high/And I'm gonna play this thing until the day I die."

In fact, both men here play and sing as if their very lives depended on it. King, perhaps spurred on by Clapton's monstrous chops, digs deeper than usual - his trademark, incalculably influential style is extended on Riding... beyond its usual ornamental role into longer lines and fully realized solos. Clapton, no stranger to excess, is inspired by his idol to hang back, playing with an intense economy that artfully offsets his occasional, well-placed sheets of sound. And both men are supported by an A-list band that includes the legendary Steve Gadd on drums, bassist Nathan East, and original Crusader Joe Sample on keyboards.

In spite of its assortment of styles, Riding With The King is essentially a traditional blues album. The choice of songs in this genre come mainly from King's earliest recordings from the 50s and 60s, including "Ten Long Years," "Help The Poor," and "Three O'Clock Blues." On a couple of even older songs, like Big Bill Broonzy's frequently covered 1930s classic, "Key To The Highway," Clapton chooses the same acoustic format he did on his wildly popular MTV Unplugged session. It's a rare treat to hear King play acoustic guitar.

Blues music has traveled a long, bloody, tear-stained road from the plantations and prison farms of the deep south, and then up the Mississippi to boomtowns like Chicago and Detroit. Somehow, it made its way across the pond to working class towns in England where it captured the imagination of young lions like Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Keith Richards. This deceptively simple three-chord, twelve-bar form, and its offspring - rock, funk, jazz - have rarely been so lovingly, joyously, and authentically presented as on Riding With The King.