The 6-foot-6 Arkansan with the weather-beaten electric guitar, the booming, earth's crust-deep basso profundo, and the huge repertoire of songs is still going strong in his mid-60s, playing nightly in honky-tonks everywhere. One of the pioneers of rockabilly, LaBeef provides good fun on CD as well, as one listen to Rockabilly Blues makes clear. The bluesy side of his music is emphasized in this collection of a dozen songs that were taped at four studio sessions in the 1980s and '90s, but languished in the Rounder vault until now. Meticulous, unselfconscious, and ever so passionate, LaBeef puts his distinctive stamp on the likes of Sonny Boy Williamson's "Bottle Up and Go" and Muddy Waters's "Mannish Boy." Nashville fiddler Buddy Spicher and New York-based pianist Dave Keyes are among the big guy's ace sidemen, and both make key contributions to this fine record. --Frank John-Hadley
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