On the first half of Bernard Allison’s first album in six years, the singer and guitarist proves he’s evolved well beyond bluesman status. With plenty of nods to soul, rock and R&B, Luther’s 49-year-old son updates Colin James’ ’80s hit “Five Long Years” and his daddy’s own “Move from the Hood” (released two years before Luther’s 1997 death, in Madison). The album’s second half delves deeper into the blues and recalls some of Bernard’s earlier recordings. Originals like the dark and sultry “Lust For You” and the simple barroom jam “Set Me Free” solidly slot between covers of Freddie King (“I’d Rather Be Blind”), Tyrone Davis (“I Had It All the Time”) and more of Luther’s work (album closer “Moving On Up”). The boy even wrote a song with his mother, Fannie Mae Allison: the laid-back sax-heavy “Call Me Momma.”
