Most of this short live album from 1997 presents Chris Thomas King on his most solid ground. He’s a funky blues guitar hero for most of Live on Beale Street, playing thick, sinuous leads that marked him on 1990’s Cry of the Prophets as someone to watch. They’re ripe with drama here, but the set also enacts the King conundrum. He plays two timeless tunes—“I’ll Play the Blues for You” and “C’est La Vie”—and two of his hip-hop blues—“Blues From da Hood” and “KKKrossroads”—that aspire to be 21st Century blues, as his label’s name indicates. The latter tracks are pretty hard and engaging, but he’s an average rapper who runs out of breath at the end of lines, so his rewrite of “Crossroads” packs muscle, but it’s not convincing. You get the feeling he likes the idea of rap more than he likes listening to it, and they sound forced next to the rest of the album. Besides, “My Pain Your Pleasure” and “L.A. Angel” achieve the goal of making contemporary blues more effectively. They’re detailed and sexually frank in ways that mark these songs as modern, and he sounds far more natural as he updates traditional blues tropes. In short, this album is further evidence that King is thinking a provocative game and you have to keep paying attention, even when the results are uneven.