Wyland Blues Planet Band Project, Blues Planet III (Independent)

Here is the final installment of one of the more quixotic recording projects undertaken in recent years. In 2011, ocean explorer/environmentalist/artist Wyland gathered together a collection of musicians from New Orleans and various other parts of the world at Piety Street studios to record 48 songs he’d written. The songs, inspired according to Wyland by Jacques Cousteau, marine biologist Dr. Sylvia Earle, Robert Johnson, Clarence Clemons and Taj Mahal, are designed to raise public consciousness in general about the fate of our oceans and in particular about the destruction of the Gulf coast following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the BP oil spill in 2010. On paper this sounds like a lot of other well-meaning but unfocussed projects, but the pleasant surprise is that the sessions produced three consistently listenable and occasionally terrific records. It helps, of course, to have a vocalist of Taj Mahal’s quality singing songs like “Blues World” and “Down on the Water” from the current album, but lesser-known singers Nick I, Amy Hanaiali’i Gillom and Willie K all do great jobs and an excellent supporting cast keeps the proceeds rocking along nicely. Rod Piazza on harmonica, Rusty Zinn on guitar and Mitch Woods on piano do yeoman, while New Orleans greats Jon Cleary, Roger Lewis and Dr. Michael White also pitch in. This is the rare worthwhile public-interest project that also sounds good.