" data-original-title="" title="">Duffy King's second CD as a leader, the reader is informed that the Detroit-based maestro plays acoustic and six-string guitars (plural). While that is presumably true (all guitars sound basically alike to some untrained ears), there's no doubt that King plays all of them quite well, as should be expected from a sovereign. When not swapping guitars, King composes, and does that quite well too; he wrote or co-wrote each of the album's eight selections, unveiling a special knack for designing handsome melodies and tantalizing rhythms.

Group size and instrumentation vary from track to track, with King playing alone (with electronic help) on the erratic "My Loopy Brain" (which ends, quite curiously, in mid-note) and "Mystic Road," on which he also dispenses a vociferous and largely incoherent background vocal. Bassist Felix Sainz appears on three tracks, percussionist