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<p>John Hammond, Jr. fell in love with country blues in the early '60s, and he has never shaken it out of his system. Over time he has developed into a gritty guitar and harp player, and while his voice still feels like someone imitating a rustic Southern blues singer rather than actually being one (Hammond is a lifetime New Yorker, after all), he has learned to temper the hoarse overstatement in his vocals to some degree -- or maybe, after 40-plus years of albums, listeners have just gotten used to his delivery. In Your Arms Again finds Hammond working in a trio format with bassist Marty Ballou and drummer Stephen Hodges, and the result is a wonderfully loose, anxious, and ragged roadhouse sound that continually feels like it's going to steamroll right off a cliff -- which isn't a bad thing at all. Recorded in a converted church in Salina, KS, in just five days, In Your Arms Again includes the usual Hammond mix of old blues and R&B classics, including, this time around, two Ray Charles songs ("I've Got a Woman," "Fool for You"), three made famous by Howlin' Wolf ("I'm Leavin' You," "Moanin' for My Baby," and Willie Dixon's "Evil [Is Going On]"), a Jimmy Reed song (a sturdy, loping version of "You Got Me Crying"), and two of the album's highlights, a vicious take on John Lee Hooker's "Serve Me Right to Suffer" and a raggedly right shuffle try on Percy Mayfield's "My Baby's Gone." Hammond also contributes two of his own songs, the title track and "Come to Find Out," which are credible if unspectacular efforts. The best track here is arguably the opener, a delightfully loose and energetic romp through the traditional "Jitterbug Swing," drawn, it would appear, from Bukka White's 1940 version on OKeh Records. In the end, Hammond doesn't break any new ground on In Your Arms Again, but the stripped-down trio format he uses here gives the album a nice back-porch rustic stomp feel, and if he stills seems like more of an imitator than an interpreter, well, he's going to get folks moving and shaking with this little combo, and that, first and foremost, is what the blues is supposed to do. The rest is academic.</p>&mdash; <b>Steve Leggett</b>

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