Seasick Steve is the current, popular face of blues in Britain, after a couple of airings on the Jools Holland show. Right now, he is at the pinnacle of the visible, glacial 10% that sits atop the submerged 90% of world-wide blues talent.

With his latest offering, ‘I Started Out With Nothin' And I Still Got Most Of It Left', which comes as the standard 11 track CD, or as a 2CD 'special edition', Seasick Steve definitely delivers, and shows that this blues ‘overnight success story' (ha!) is well deserved. I'll stick to the standard issue for this review.

The eponymous opener is introduced by Steve in his down-home, mellifluous drawl, as are many of the tracks, sometimes informatively, often just by way of easing into the songs. Started Out With Nothin' captures the Hobo ethos endemic in this album perfectly, the simple electrified slide guitar, Memphis drum machine (stomp box) set up refined by the excellent drumming of Dan Magnusson, and the gospel feel of the backing vocals from Kim Fleming and Gale Mayes.

Walkin' Man continues the itinerant theme which seems to have influenced Seasick Steve's life view, although I understand his experience of ‘the life' was mainly garnered in youth. The pared down arrangement - acoustic guitar and vocal - develops as a subtle and well crafted, poignant love song, more about commitment than wandering, sentiments echoed in Fly By Night.

Back to riding the trains with the story of St. Louis Slim, who apparently lost a leg riding the buffers. The blues is straighter and harder edged, with drinking in the mix, a feel confirmed in Thunderbird - “If you're gonna sing a song about drinkin' wine, you should, ah, drink some wine, mm” - the fortified Californian ‘tramp wine'. There's still some road-house style raw fire in this music, the tracks finale reminiscent of the White Stripes earlier sound.

Happy Man is a great, feel good song, with main stream appeal, akin to some of Tom Waits' less esoteric, anthemic material (another Californian). It features the excellent Ruby Turner on vocals, and, less obviously, KT Tunstall on rhythm guitar. Just Like A King is the only true collaboration, with the dark Nick Cave and elements of his band. The partnership produces a more constructed song, but manages to sit well amongst the other material.

Prospect Lane is boxcar life with more of a white country blues lilt, train imitations et al; One True is a simple and heartfelt, one assumes tribute, to a lost pet dog. Chiggers pours some southern authenticity into the mix, although Seasick Steve must have had a real bad experience or two, to rail against a parasitic bug for over five minutes.

The album ends on the theme of youth, with the beautifully mournful My Youth, about its passing, played and sung exquisitely in a Delta style. Lastly we are treated to whimsical memories of youthful antics, a place where it seems Seasick Steve spends a lot of time.

Seasick Steve's I Started Out With Nothin' And I Still Got Most Of It Left is a fine ambassador for one man and his guitar blues, even though the recording production itself is a little more sophisticated, and will hopefully introduce a broader audience to this fantastic, animated and truthful form of, all to often marginalised, music.

JBBlue