Everybody likes Coco Montoya. Albert Collins liked him so much, he invited him to be his drummer and then turned him into a first-rate blues guitarist. Brit blues legend John Mayall liked him so much he asked him to join the Bluesbreakers. And he comes with a list of press raves as long as your arm. Everyone likes Coco Montoya. And I do, too. but Suspicion could use a little work.

Don’t worry; if you like ace Texas-style rollin’ and tumblin’, it’s all over this disc, and Montoya never lets the solos get predictable—dig, for example, that sudden crazy lurch at the end of “Enough Is Enough” that cements his babe-I’m-gonna-leave-you sentiment better than the rest of the song does. And that’s a problem endemic to Suspicion: smokin’ blues guitarists with a lot of stock shuffles and nothing to say are six for a nickel. Coco’s axe nearly breaks under the strain of having to hold up these dozen songs alone, most clearly in the weakest version of Johnny Otis’ “Casting My Spell” you’ve ever heard.

When he deigns to break form, however, Coco catches fire, with the ace slow-burn R&B of “Good Days Bad Days” and “Nothing But Love.” He’s certainly got vocal chops for it; could we have a soul man here who’s trying too hard to jump up the juke joint? If the album’s best track, the literally and figuratively horny “I Need Your Love In My Life,” is any indication, Montoya is more than able to rise above Suspicion. Here’s hoping this nice guy finishes first.