It certainly looks like a good idea. Grab the cream of Louisiana blues music, one on each instrument—piano, guitar, and harp, and throw them together in a studio. Instant magic, yes?

Yes and no. This is an unbeatable Pelican State combo, featuring Tabby Thomas, Raful Neal, and Eddie Bo, but musical summit meetings, like their political counterparts, often trade their good intentions for common sense.

For example, covering each other’s compositions was a brilliant idea, but covering “I Fought The Law” wasn’t. Not to mention Dylan’s “If I Don’t Be There By Morning,” which reduces the legendary trio to a Clapton cover band. And do we need another version of “Big Chief” at this point?

Worse, the entire project suffers from that antiseptic studio lethargy that affects so many good blues musicians. These three can’t help but do a solid job, but whatever happened to a producer who worked to drag the absolute best performances out of his artists?

The casual fan will want to derive solace from some of the sprightlier cuts, such as the light chicken-scratch funk of Neal’s “Hard Times” and the gently boiling soul of his “I’ve Been Mistreated.”

If you’re a hardcore fan of any one (or two) of these men, you may want to own this CD anyway, just for the historical value. Pity that the men behind it seemed to think that was enough to shoot for.