It’s 2024 and the blues is still alive and well. Case in point is The Deacon Speaks, the new CD release from American guitar icon Steve Hunter. Guitar fans will remember Steve for his fine fretboard work with Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, Jack Bruce and Aerosmith just to name of few of his credits.

As cool as his litany of session musician credits roll, Hunter’s fans will also cite his critically acclaimed albums including Short Stories (2008) and his fifth solo album The Manhattan Blues Project (2013).

For The Deacon Speaks, Steve tackles all the instruments and compared to his earlier instrumental albums, this new one features his vocals. The music is an interesting choice in that amid the Hunter originals, there are fresh covers of blues classics written by Willie Dixon, the Rolling Stones, Bill Withers, Jimi Hendrix, Lou Reed and Steve’s wife Karen Hunter. Even with so many bluesy, rootsy vocals from Steve there are indeed a couple instrumentals that seems to fit in.

Fans of Steve’s instrumental guitar releases will be in for a treat as the short but sweet “Annabel’s Blues” and the CD closer “In A Lonely Place” are among his best guitar-centric tracks. That said, on The Deacon Speaks it’s a gas to hear one of America’s guitar heroes singing on this well-honed set of gutsy, bluesy classics and originals.