Robben Ford

After nine years of delving knee deep into the blues with his rockin’ Blue Line band, guitarist Robben Ford has taken a new direction on his seventh solo outing, TigerWalk (Blue Thumb/GRP). A decidedly funkier affair featuring drummer Steve Jordan and bassist Charley Drayton (the loose-tight rhythm section from the X-Pensive Winos, Keith Richards’ pet project outside of the Rolling Stones) in the syncopated company of P-Funk keyboard wiz Bernie Worrell, this all-instrumental project is more on the R&B tip and highlights some of Ford’s most spectacular playing on record.

“I wanted to do a straight-out guitar record,” he says. “That’s my instrument. It is a bigger part of me than singing is and it just comes so natural to me. So we put together an album that has a sense of simplicity, strong grooves and lots of guitar.”