Brother Tyrone, Mindbender (Guitar Joe’s House of Blues)

Brother Tyrone, a powerful vocalist in the classic R&B tradition, has come up with an absolute gem in Mindbender. The recording sounds like something fresh out of Malaco studios in the mid 1970s; it’s old school, but not retro. Even though Brother Tyrone declaims on the classic verities of love and devotion on “It’s Hard to Explain” and “I Never Found a Girl,” he fashions contemporary statements to match the classic gospel funk groove.

The album’s highlights are a pair of post-Katrina compositions that don’t serve up bathos or wallow in sorrow, but cut sharp, witty storylines keening with the emotional complexities of dealing with life after the deluge. “If You Ain’t Cheating,” an R&B story song that matches up with the finest moments in the genre’s history, has Brother Tyrone stranded in a “little town” bar post-Katrina. His family is in Texas, and the sultry woman sitting at the bar wants company. She looks good and Tyrone feels the need, but he misses his wife so much he hesitates to make the move. So the woman delivers that Malaco chorus.

“If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t tryin.

Say you don’t want me you know you’re lying.”

Then the jukebox plays Johnny Taylor “and the years began to melt away.” Tyrone remembers the old days with his baby and tells the woman he’s going home to think. As he walks out of the bar he hears her sing that chorus again.

“When It’s Gone, It’s Gone” isn’t as perfect an R&B classic as “…Cheating,” but it’s a salient comment on watching your possessions float away during the flood. The stark description of loss is balanced by guest vocalist Richard “Tricky Dick” Dixon’s sense of humor while he details a catalog of classic soul references.

Tyrone goes from strength to strength as the album plays out, delivering a showstopping version of “Nothing Takes the Place of You,” cutting his own version of a Mardi Gras anthem with “New Indian Blues,” and coming up with a killer arrangement for the often-heard but never better delivered “I Used to Love Her” (elsewhere known as Bobby and Shirley Womack’s “It’s All Over Now”). The band is outstanding, especially the absolutely perfect rhythm section of Jack Cruz on bass, Willie “Junkyard Dog” Arnold on drums and Marc Adams on keyboards. But Tyrone is always the main story here, whether he’s delivering the soulful ballad “Just Because,” singing the down home blues “Ain’t No Use” or rocking down the house on “New Roll and Tumble.” You need at least two copies of this record, because you’re definitely going to want to give one to a friend.