Dion Wanders Back Into The Blues

Growing up in the Bronx in the late '40s and early '50s, Dion DiMucci couldn't listen to rock-and-roll. It hadn't been invented yet. Just a few years later, of course, it would provide him with a long career, first in the Italian doo-wop group Dion and the Belmonts and then as a solo artist.

But the DiMucci family radio did introduce Dion to other types of music, including blues. And now, more than half a century later, he pays tribute to that genre with "Bronx in Blue." It's a genial acoustic stroll through 11 classics by the likes of Robert Johnson, Lightnin' Hopkins, Jimmy Reed and Jimmy Rogers, a Hank Williams standard, plus two Dion originals that show great affection for, and deep understanding of, the idiom.

All of this makes sense when you remember that blues and country are cornerstones of rock-and-roll. Which was the point Dion was making when he sang some of these songs last year on Terry Gross's National Public Radio show, "Fresh Air." That's where veteran producer Richard Gottehrer heard Dion and wisely sensed that his homage to the blues deserved a wider hearing.

Dion, now 66, makes no attempt here to sound overly, or preciously, "authentic." He does reveal himself as a surprisingly accomplished acoustic guitarist: The sound here is stripped down to basics, with some overdubbing and minimal percussion, courtesy of Bob Guertin. Addressing some true blues standards -- Robert Johnson's "Crossroads" and "Terraplane Blues," Jimmy Reed's "Baby, What You Want Me to Do," Blind Willie McTell's "Statesboro Blues" -- Dion doesn't offer radical revisions but does manage to put his own signature on them.

This isn't Dion's first foray into the blues. While on the Columbia label in the early '60s, the singer recorded tunes by Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Willie Dixon and Sleepy John Estes, but they were lost amid rock, R&B, folk and folk-rock offerings from an artist and label looking for a clear identity. (You can hear some of them on the 1991 compilation "Bronx Blues: The Columbia Recordings," whose cover is oddly similar to that of "Bronx in Blue.")

The four Robert Johnson tunes on the new album have a Columbia connection, as well: In the mid-'60s, producer and A&R legend John Hammond played for Dion acetates of Columbia's upcoming Johnson reissues, and those sides have proved a lasting inspiration, making "Bronx in Blue" a mini-version of Eric Clapton's "Me and Mr. Johnson." Besides a smoothly propulsive "Crossroads" and "Terraplane Blues," Dion tackles "Travelin' Riverside Blues" and "Walkin' Blues."

Dion's fondness for urban blues is evident in the genial momentum of Rogers's "You're the One," the Howlin' Wolf standard "How Many More Years" and Willie Dixon's "Built for Comfort" (an ode to the benefits of loving a larger man), as well as a solid original called "If You Wanna Rock and Roll." But he also shows an empathy for country blues, on Hopkins's "You Better Watch Yourself" and his other contribution, a rolling, Mississippi John Hurt-style "I Let My Baby Do That." "Bronx in Blue" also features a taut reading of Bo Diddley's bluesy rocker "Who Do You Love" and Dion's hard-edged, almost Springsteenish vocal on Hank Williams's "Honky Tonk Blues" that establishes the old blues and country connections at rock's roots.