Coco Robicheaux spends a lot of time explaining himself on his latest CD, Yeah, U Rite! which, from its title on down, seems like a particularly shameless attempt by this swamp-blues mainstay to sell his dark, funky muse to the public as just another one of those self-referential acts, the kind designed to move units on the second floor at Tower. He’s better than that—and you don’t need to revisit better albums like 1995’s Spiritland or 1998’s Louisiana Medicine Man to know it.

Once past the opening title track (a litany of clichés about what it’s like to live in the Crescent City) and the deep-as-its-title “Hot Sauce Boogie,” you gratefully discover that Coco, one of the blues’ best living songwriters, still has something to say. “Street Connexxxion” has a clearer take on the drug wars than any recent Presidential administration with its tale of people “connected to the man / down on the corner of supply and demand,” while the existential “Sittin’ On Death Row” offers a bleak worldview of life as one big holding cell. Even “I’m A Musician” is less about his ability to rock than it is about the traveling bluesman’s superhuman ability to live life at extremes every minute of the day.

Okay, none of this will matter much to those of you who just want to hear Robicheaux wield his particular brand of blues power again, and in that regard, Yeah, U Rite! works just fine—especially with MVPs Michael Sklar on lead and Roy Pope on bass (that percolating groove on “Connexxxion” is a real killer). Overall, these ten originals cover a bit less musical ground than usual, with only two lovely soul ballads called “The Moment (I Lay Eyes On You)” and “If You Still Want Me” there to break up the swamp-rock marsh gas. Still, few living musicians do the swamp thing with so much passion, even if doing so here means an occasional misstep like the gimmicky “Ten Commandments of the Blues.” That song lists “never kill a bluesman” as Commandment Five; presumably the Blues God will then come along and exile your ass into some musical wasteland for 40 years. (My guess: Branson).