Look, he founded the Yellowjackets, toured with Miles and has played with George Harrison and Joni Mitchell, but when you come right down to it, what guitarist Robben Ford is REALLY all about is the blues, and that’s what he’s emphasized on his latest disc (Bringing It Back Home) as well as this evening at Catalina’s. Teamed up with an indigoed crew of Steve Baxter/tb, Dave Pilch/b, Lamar Carter/dr and the essential Jim Cox on the Hammond, Ford delivered 90 minutes of every shade of blues that you’d ever want, and yet made each hue sound as fresh and different from the previous and next.
His earthy and blue-eyed soul of a voice was exquisitely clear and as leathered as a 10 year first baseman’s mitt as he and the band went from funky blues (“Everything I Do…) to Crescent City blues on “Fairchild.” You want smoky blues? Ford delivered the goods on a incendiary take of Charlie Patton’s “Bird’s Nest,” while able to even deliver some pop blues on “Oh Virginia” and shuffling reggae blues on “Slick Capers.” Baxter’s horn on the latter was as pungent as Masala sauce. If you prefer your blues down and dirty, Ford picked his guitar to pieces while Cox filled the room with sounds akin to a fog machine on the riveting 
“Too Much.” He even brought in the blues from where it first began, in the church as he displayed alarming sensitivity and spiritual yearning on a gospel tune “On That Morning,” which had the B3 testifying right along with the strings. Closing the set with a blues cruiser “Trick Bag,” Ford showed the packed club that trends and styles may come and go, but the marrow of American music is, was and always will be the 5th color of the rainbow.
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