Personnel includes: Charlie Musselwhite (vocals, harmonica); Charlie Sexton (vocals, guitar); Jared Michael Nickerson (bass); Michael Jerome (drums); Ben Harper, The Blind Boys Of Alabama.

Recorded at Capitol Studios, Hollywood, California.

Personnel: Charlie Musselwhite (vocals, harmonica); Charlie Sexton (vocals, guitar); Jared Michael Nickerson (bass instrument); Micahel Jerome (drum).

Audio Mixer: Jimmy Hoyson.

After exploring elements of Cuban music and American country on his two previous albums, harmonica player extraordinaire Charlie Musselwhite revisits his Mississippi Delta blues roots on 2004's SANCTUARY. The opener, Ben Harper's "Homeless Child," is as lean as a hungry dog, with the song's composer and session ace Charlie Sexton lending fierce slide guitars and ghostly backing vocals to Musselwhite's world-weary voice and moaning harmonica. The dark, minimal feel of the tune sets the stage for the rest of the album, which features muscular remakes of Randy Newman's "Burn Down the Cornfield" and Townes Van Zandt's "Snake Song," among other superb tunes.

The inimitable layered harmonies of the Blind Boys of Alabama grace the spooky but smoothly chugging "Train to Nowhere," and the up-tempo, country-gospel "I Had Trouble." The plaintive take on Eddie Harris's "Alicia" has Musselwhite's harp sounding long and low. There isn't a misstep on this set; largely because Musselwhite avoids the elder-bluesman tendency for making a brightly produced, commercially viable, late-career album. Instead he pushes the music into swampy, shadowed corners and stays fiercely true to the Delta spirit. Aptly named, SANCTUARY is a finely carved shrine where listeners can come to appreciate the mysterious power of the blues.

Living Blues (pp.46-8) - "Thanks to atypical content, masterful musicianship, and heartfelt performances. SANCTUARY succeeds on many levels, providing a soulful refuge from the outside world."