Jerry Lee Lewis, Rock & Roll Time (Vanguard)

Jerry Lee Lewis, Rock & Roll Time, album cover, OffBeat Magazine, November 2014

Jerry Lee Lewis already made an album called Last Man Standing 10 years ago.

But now with Fats Domino and Little Richard both retired, one Everly Brother gone and Chuck Berry stumbling, Lewis really is the last of rock ’n’ roll’s founding fathers still making new music.

Not that this CD even sounds new: He could have run through most of these songs just about any time in his career and, for the most part, that’s a compliment.

Session ace Jim Keltner, who oversaw Lewis’ last album, Mean Old Man, returns as both drummer and producer. Again he manages to cram a bunch of guest stars in while making it feel informal: Versions of “Little Queenie” and “Folsom Prison Blues” both sound like they’re played by backwoods roadhouse bands, even though the former has Keith Richards and Ron Wood, and the latter features Robbie Robertson and Nils Lofgren.

Neil Young’s guest shot on “Bright Lights, Big City” works less well, sounding too obviously overdubbed. But it does have Ivan Neville on B-3: You can only catch about one chord in the mix, but it’s a funky chord.

Most of the tracks on this half-hour album are familiar ones, some of which Lewis already recorded at least once (even with the Stones, he’ll never beat the 1959 version of “Queenie”). But the title track, actually a country tune by Kris Kristofferson, makes a worthy addition to his catalogue.

Lewis’ voice sounds decidedly aged on a few tracks, but sometimes he summons the old fire: On the rollicking “Mississippi Kid,” his shout of “Gimme some, baby!” is perfectly improper for a 78-year-old.