Latest releases reviewed.

GUY DAVIS
Skunkmello
Red House
****

Some water has flowed under the bridge since I last heard Guy Davis, but the American bluesman, actor and writer continues to impress with his command of urban and country blues styles. His voice seems more coarse and more expressive. This is particularly evident on his cover of the classic Goin Down Slow; this is no routine run-through as he gets inside the song. Indeed, a mark of this collection is the way Davis inhabits these colourful tales from the past. Though middle-class to the core - as his biog states, the only cotton he's picked is his underwear up off the floor - Davis's family history includes frequent clashes with the KKK, and there is a strong sense of black experience at the centre of his music. The styles vary, but country blues is obviously where he lays his hat and the album fairly jumps with lively examples. www.guydavis.com - Joe Breen

SLAID CLEAVES
Unsung
Rounder Records
****

Slaid Cleaves comes across as a decent guy, the sort who would give you a hand if he could. And that's what he does with Unsung. The bulk of these songs are by unknowns he's met along the way, songwriters such as Graham Weber, who once opened in Pittsburgh for the ace Texan singer/songwriter. Cleaves remembered a song from Weber's set, and that's why Oh Roberta turns up here. The other 12 songs have similar stories, for this is a covers album with a difference. Cleaves treats each song as if it were his own, infusing stories like that of Adam Carroll's Racecar Joe with the insider knowledge that comes from hearing the song from the writer's lips. There are loads of good songs and none better than Ana Egge's intriguing Fairest of Them All. As Cleaves says in his CD sleeve notes: "It's one of those great songs, cinematic and mysterious, where you find yourself asking - wait a minute, what just happened there?" www.slaidcleaves.com - Joe Breen

VARIOUS ARTISTS
De Todo Corazón
CoraZong Records
**

Cuban music can be anything these days. Hotter than Santiago asphalt thanks to Ry Cooder's magical exposé of The Buena Vista Social Club, all things Cuban musical wend their way into the recording studio. This collection of bolero music is the ultimate coffee table collection: easy on the ear, occasionally touching the sublime (Omara Portuondo's Piensa en Mí), but rarely scaling the creative heights of TBVSC's more usual terrain. The copious and raggedy use of sax serves to sully rather than structure the collection, as if jousting with the jaded sensibilities of listeners ground down by the aural pap of daytime radio. Rarely do we catch glimpses of the louche nonchalance that characterises the music of the late, great Reuben Gonzalez or Compay Segundo. Nothing more than a passable appetiser. www.corazong.com - Siobhán Long