The older he gets, the more Ronnie Wood's ragged wheeze makes him sound like a cigarette-wrecked Randy Newman. This is not a dis. That broken, damaged voice is what makes the Stones guitarist's first solo studio disc in nine years shine. He's gathered a who's who of collaborators — old Faces mate Ian McLagan, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, R&B vet Bobby Womack and relative youngsters Slash and Flea — for a set that includes a Seventies-style country-rock ballad ("Why You Wanna Go and Do a Thing Like That For"), chunky rockers ("Thing About You") and one hot blues standard ("Spoonful"). Nothing world-changing here, but the performances are down, dirty and heartfelt.
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