There is a road, call it the blues highway, that takes you through the classic tropes of swing and boogie woogie into jump blues, early R&B and proto rock ’n’ roll. Any number of well-respected recording artists have parked alongside that road at some point and built a career there. James Hunter is a recent case in point, and his success has inspired a number of unworthy young pretenders to ply a similarly academic R&B neoclassicism.

Boogie woogie piano player Mitch Woods, on the other hand, drives as fast as he can push it up and down that highway, burning rubber when he can with displays of prowess in all of its destinations. That’s exactly where we find him at the start of Jukebox Drive; where the title cut is a clever variation on the car song tradition of “Rocket 88” and “Hot Rod Lincoln.” Woods has a ride equipped with jukebox drive, and he updates the story line to include alien abduction.

Over the course of this run, Woods, a skilled songwriter and arranger, makes us hear connections that run from Count Basie’s “One O’Clock Jump” to the Bill Haley recording of “Rock Around the Clock.” In addition to six Woods originals (including “Boppin’ the Boogie,” “Boogie Woogie Bar-B-Q” and “Mitch’s Boogie”—you get the idea), he covers a couple of Jimmy Liggins tunes, John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom,” Mose Allison’s “Parchman Farm” and tops it all off with a spirited reading of the Professor Longhair classic “Tipitina.”

That’s covering a lot of miles, especially at today’s gas prices.