by Ralph Heibutzki\nOn this album, Michael Bloomfield continued the country blues and folk explorations of his Grammy-nominated instructional outing, If You Love These Blues Play 'Em As You Please (1976). For Analine, he worked in an acoustic, often single-handed mode, being the only musician on seven of its nine tracks (and writing just over half the material, too). Such one-man efforts often carry an air of sterility about them, but not here; Bloomfield's version of Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo" retains the jaunty swing feel associated with its composer. The solo guitar pieces are equally well executed, particularly "Effinonna Rag" and the tribute to "Mr. Johnson and Mr. Dunn," where Bloomfield plays dueling guitar parts in the blues pioneers' style. Along the way, Bloomfield taps into folk ("Frankie and Johnny"), gospel ("At the Cross"), and even Hawaiian idioms ("Hilo Waltz"). He also sings two stirring originals about cancer ("Big 'C' B...