ALBERT COLLINS, ROBERT CRAY AND JOHNNY COPELAND

Showdown! (1985)

Despite its title, the album isn’t exactly a shootout or throwdown; it’s more a bunch of friends having “a natural ball.” Still, you can’t do much better than the opening track, a cover of T-Bone Walker’s “T-Bone Shuffle,” if you’re looking for tasty blues licks to “borrow” — and it is truly inspiring to hear Robert Cray in a pure I-IV-V setting (Cray plays the song’s extended third solo). Just sayin’!