Given his skill, taste, and overall musicality, it’s a wonder why Austin guitarist Mitch Watkins isn’t mentioned in the same breath as anyone named Vaughan, Sexton, or Johnson. Maybe it’s because he’s spent his career either at the side of more famous folks (Leonard Cohen, Joe Ely, Lyle Lovett), or because his solo career flies the jazz flag. In that vein, Watkins and his trio step away from the Elephant Room, their usual haunt, and recruit old pal Paul Glasse to revive the blazing guitar/mandolin duets Watkins and Glasse played together in the Nineties. Come for the nostalgia, stay for the improvisational fire. – Michael Toland
