It shouldn’t have taken Johnson a full decade to find his way back into a studio, but such are the injustices of the record business. The wait was worth it, though — backed by his touring trio of the timeframe, Johnson mixes blues and soul, originals (a heartfelt “Black & White Wall” and the soaring ballad “My Ring”) and covers (his takes on McKinley Mitchell’s “End of a Rainbow” and Wilson Pickett’s “Engine Number 9″ hit home), in decidedly solid contemporary form. – Bill Dahl