Koko Taylor

Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters were subtle, Etta James is more so; in his wry, unschooled way, so even was Hound Dog Taylor. The long-reigning blues mama still isn't subtle-cf. the original "Man Size Job" by Ann Peebles, hardly Billie Holiday herself. She's no composer, either. But she owns owns owns the gender-switched Bo Diddley rewrite "I'm a Woman," the Johnny Otis obscurity "Beer Bottle Boogie," two Louis Jordan covers, and, most dramatically and impressively, "Wang Dang Doodle"-play her version, not Wolf's, at my damn funeral, 'cause maybe it'll wake me up. Both Chicago and jump blues are dealt a short hand by the houserocking idea. But except for Hound Dog himself, nobody has made as much of it as this leather-lunged trouper. Finally she has an album that proves it. (Grade: A-)