BB King is one of the greatest blues singers and guitar-players to strum a guitar on this planet and he has just proved it again with his latest album.

At the ripe old age of 82 he has produced a collection of songs that will go down in history as amongst his best works. 'One Kind Favour' is as good, or even better, than classics such as 'Lucille' and 'Singin’ the Blues'.

The songs in this collection all have a warm, earthy, non-sanitised sound to them… it's King going back his roots and the early days of simple, but great blues.

Like many other super stars the old maestro had been overly studio directed on some of his recent albums, resulting in a highly-refined end-result that came across as almost too smooth, too polished, too well-rehearsed and somehow a little short on soul and spontaneity.

All of that has been thrown out of the window to give the world the raw, warm, emotional sound of BB King at his best.

For much of this back to basics stuff one probably has to thank legendary producer T Bone Burnett and the backing of a couple of stars in their own right, like Dr John on piano, drummer Jim Keltner (who played with Mick Jagger and John Lennon) and Nathan East, whom Eric Clapton once described as the best bass player in the business.

The songs themselves are so good that they sound like they were written especially for King way back in the '50s — like my favourite, 'Backwater Blues', written by Lonnie Johnson and beautifully presented by King; John Lee Hooker's 'Sunrise', 'Midnight Blues', by John "Shifty" Henry and 'See That My Grave Is Kept Clean' co-penned by Lemon Jefferson and Furry Lewis.

It's a wonderful album, one of the best of the past decade, not only by King but by anybody else in the blues business. If the man can sing like this at 82, here's hoping he continues doing so until he clocks 105.