By their company, so the saying goes, ye shall know them. Well, Kid Ramos’ career has had him playing with and/or befriending some good company indeed…The Fabulous Thunderbirds, The Blasters, Los Lobos, Roomful Of Blues, just to scratch the surface. Meaning it would take a truly Biblical event to ruin his new CD, titled simply Kid Ramos. Thankfully, that didn’t go down.

There’s no modernization of the blues in the Kid’s repertoire; he even takes pains to look retro. But as he says, “It’s not retro, it’s unfinished business,” and the friends he’s assembled to finish that business get the job done very nicely indeed. Head Thunderbird Kim Wilson wails like Bobby “Blue” Bland on the opener, “Dead Love,” Lobos frontman Cesar Rosas is making like The Big Bopper on Willie Dixon’s “Three Hundred Pounds Of Joy,” and Willie Chambers (of the Chambers Brothers) makes a much-welcomed return on Ray Agee’s “Leave Me Alone.” Throughout it all, Ramos delivers lots of sun-baked Orange-County-transplanted-to-Austin guitar; nothing you haven’t heard before, but pleasant enough, and as purely authentic as the Fire Chief gas pump that adorns the CD packaging. Like that ancient artifact, however,

Kid Ramos could stand to be just a bit higher-octane.