Bay Area electric and acoustic guitarist Dennis Johnson (last reviewed in this space on 26 August 2017) has staked out territory that, if not entirely novel, is still distinctive in its ambition to split the difference between old and new yet leaving both living. Though based in blues of the downhome kind, Johnson lets other forms of traditional American music into his vision.

Here that vision makes room for one of my favorite 19th-century hymns. Recorded by a range of artists from the Carter Family to the Kingston Trio to Johnny Cash and beyond, "Lonesome Valley," surely never sung in the manner Johnson does it, feels strangely, though hardly strictly, authentic. There's also the spiritual "Salvation Bound" -- ordinarily "Since I Laid My Burden Down" -- in a likely unprecedented but just as pleasing arrangement.

Otherwise, Johnson, a living slide-guitar master, pays homage to heroes Freddy King, Big Joe Williams, Robert Johnson and more. While doing so, he does not always stick to the text, title or even genre. The radical reinvention is particularly pronounced in "Two Lights," which owes its inspiration and imagery to Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain" but here abandons blues altogether and becomes something akin to a 1920s pop tune. "Ramblin'," known to all Johnson geeks as "Ramblin' on My Mind," pushes 20 years beyond Johnson's violent death in 1938 into the early rock 'n' roll era to become a barreling rockabilly charge. Because rockabilly is sometimes characterized as being to mainstream rock what bluegrass is to country, I permit myself to hope some bluegrass picker hears this and gets the bright idea to arrange "Ramblin'" that way.

For the benefit of those possibly nervous about it, I might add that the opening cut, "Going Down," is from Freddy King's interpretation of an older blues, but this is the hobo version, not the one performed, I suspect, solely by drunks. The title number denotes a captivating slide instrumental.

The three player back-up band, featuring the well-known rock drummer Anton Fig, offers muscular support to Johnson's sharply edged vocals but gets out front only when appropriate. On Revelation all elements are in place, and nobody in his or her right mind will find anything to complain about.

[ visit Dennis Johnson's website ]