Eric Clapton is obviously no stranger to the blues. From his works with The Yardbirds, Cream, Blind Faith, The Bluesbreakers, Delaney & Bonnie, and Derek and the Dominos, he has shown that he is a blues legend in his own right. Even as a solo artist, one could argue that he released the greatest blues album in the last ten years with From the Cradle. Clapton is also no stranger to paying tribute to his blues heroes. Just recently in 2000, Clapton teamed up with long time idol B.B. King on the fantastic album Riding With the King. So it really comes as no surprise to anyone including myself, that Clapton would try to tackle an album of covers from his biggest influence of all time, Mr. Robert Johnson. Now if you're not familiar with Robert Johnson, (and you should be embarrassed with yourself if you're not) all you pretty much need to know is that he's basically the God of all Gods of blues music. Clapton has even been quoted as saying "I have never found anything more deeply soulful than Robert Johnson. His music remains the most powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice." That quote comes directly from the liner notes of Johnson's Complete Recordings, the two disc Holy Grail to blues fans.

Complete Recordings has 41 cuts in all, and Clapton tackles 14 of them here on Me and Mr. Johnson. How do they fare? Well? So-so. Clapton's heart is definitely in the right place, and at least the album starts off with a bang. "When You Got a Good Friend" is a wonderful starter, and "Little Queen of Spades" benefits from the supporting roles of legendary Billy Preston on keyboards, and Doyle Bramhall II on slide guitar. Clapton even tries his hand at ragtime on "They're Red Hot" with extremely positive results, it's definitely the freshest, most fun cover on the album, and by far the best. After that however, things get a bit rocky. The next six tracks all suffer from the same problem, and that's overproduction. Clapton's voice is all wrong for the songs; it's almost like he's overdoing it because he's not sure what else to do. The music for the songs are also so overdone, that you can't help but think of that scene in the movie Ghost World where the white boys from Blues Hammer are yelling "I've been picking cotton all day long!" It's just completely silly, and quite embarrassing. But by the end of the album, things finally do get better. The second best track, "Come On In My Kitchen" has an almost gospel feel to it. And "32-20" Blues is a great swingin' tune near the end.

Probably the most discouraging thing about Me and Mr. Johnson is that if you've ever listened to Robert Johnson's Complete Recordings, it's that there are certain songs that you just know would be perfect for Clapton's range and style. Why on Earth didn't he try to tackle "Sweet Home Chicago," "Ramblin' On My Mind," or at the very least "Preachin' Blues' Preachin' Blues" slide guitar just screams for Eric Clapton to cover it. And the only reason that I can think of that he didn't cover "Malted Milk" is because he had already done it for his Unplugged album. Oh well, hopefully he'll do better next time when we can all hope that releases his next batch of covers called Me & Mr. Johnson 2, Sorry I missed you at the Crossroads last time, my plane was delayed.