Vancouver Sun

I thought it would be hard for Jim Byrnes to top his 2004 recording Fresh Horses, but you can never sell this guy short. The singer-songwriter populates his new disc, House of Refuge, with fellow Vancouver musicians, but has them play the music he grew up with in his Missouri youth-blues, gospel and acoustic soul. Call it a successful border crossing.

The opening track, the hand-clapping Didn't It Rain, has vocal trio the Sojourners (Ron Small, Marcus Mosely and Will Sanders) setting the tone with some sweet a capella sounds before the band kicks in, Elliot Polsky's bass drum beating out the song's heartbeat. That gospel feel is recreated on a half-dozen tunes, one of the best being Today, a rootsy blues in the style of Keb' Mo', where Steve Dawson, who produced the recording, lays out some great slide guitar.

Byrnes will always be known as a blues musician, and he serves the genre well on Running Out of Time, a 12/8 numer with a soulful Byrnes vocal and nice pedal steel guitar from Dawson, Jesse Zubot plays good fiddle on the Robert Johnson song Last Fair Deal Gone Down, then brandishes a mandolin on the country blues Big Bill's Blues.

(4 1/2 stars)

-Marke Andrews