Carl Weathersby Credit: courtesy the artist

This show is part of what Carl Weathersby is calling his “I’m Back Again” tour. That said, the bluesman hasn’t really been absent—he’s recently been heard and seen as part of Pierre Lacocque’s Mississippi Heat. All the same, considering that his last album under his own name, I’m Still Standing Here, was released eight years ago, this could be viewed as something of a comeback. Like several blues performers active since the 70s, Weathersby shows the influence of Albert King—during the latter’s years on the Stax label, he had a way of mixing straight blues with soulish rhythms that seems to have affected everybody from Son Seals on down the line. But Weathersby brings a soul singer’s vulnerability to the table, and while the covers on Still Standing (which include at least one King composition as well as songs made famous by the Temptations and Teddy Pendergrass) are fairly audacious, it’s the originals and lesser-known material that really shine. Equal time is given to Weathersby’s guitar work, but instead of sounding like a solo that never ends, it comes off as a second voice echoing what his heart feels. The sublety hits you like a brick.   v