Celebrated Piedmont Country Blues duo Cephas and Wiggins return with the follow up to their Alligator debut, 1996’s Cool Down. In classic traditionalists’, well, tradition, they don’t fix anything unbroken.

There’s another nod to Bessie Smith (“Trouble In Mind”), more props to Rev. Gary Davis (an instrumental version ,of “Slow Blues”) and continued sacrificial offerings to their main inspiration, Blind Boy Fuller: the CD is bookended by “Mamie” and “Pig meat.”

Guitarist/vocalist “Bowling Green” John Cephas, and harp fiend “Harmonica” Phil Wiggins also come up with some lean originals, a few more than last time. Like last time, John’s vocals aren’t terribly expressive or impressive; most of the fire here erupts from wailing of the instrumental kind. As such, the covers work best, especially Skip James’ victory over Jim Crow, “Illinois Blues.”

Two originals do come close to matching the classics, however. “Leaving Blues” is a stately, countryish number that pulls simple dignity out of the inevitable. And in “I Was Determined; the duo come up with a personal anthem, oddly enough, by praising their forbears.

They may not be, as some claim, the new Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, but there’s no better living embodiment of East Coast Country Blues.