Blues music has always emitted inexplicable healing powers among its purveyors and devotees. When Michael Juan Nunez of Lafayette’s rock monsters RiverBabys needed a respite, this project served as a free-flowing catharsis. A mostly solo affair featuring some fairly organic slide and acoustic guitar playing, Nunez certainly has the stuff to hold his listeners without any longing for other sidemen.

On several tunes such as Fred McDowell’s boogie-down “Shake ’Em Down” and the original “Corn on the Cob,” Nunez sings in a delightful rock ‘n’ roll angst-filled voice. The blues favorite “King Bee” offers an alternative interpretation, here Nunez slows it down a tad, simulates a vintage dirty “mic” effect and dubbed-in scratchy record sounds that suggests he learned the piece hearing it over and over in the solitude of his bedroom. Robert Johnson’s “Come On In My Kitchen” is conveyed with sincerity spiced with some stinging slide; “Stagger Lee” offers some joyous rolling finger picking in the spirit of “Mississippi” John Hurt.

The instrumental “Summer Noodle” is a seductively stunning sleeper while the disc’s other instrumental “Pixie and Dixie” vibrantly shakes and bakes thanks to some jukin’ harp playing from Robeaux, one of the two guest artists featured here. The other featured artist is Charivari fiddler Mitch Reed who cements a haunting presence on the mind-etching melody of “Woman.”

Yet, the best thing about all this is not the homage paid to blues gods or Nunez’s accented razor sharp technique but just how natural everything feels. The crystal clear sound makes it feel like he’s only a few feet away in moderate-sized room, playing passionately and hence silencing the din of a party. Through the honesty of his folk-flavored originals “Balance” and “Good Life,” you sense that Nunez’s creations are autobiographical in nature and by listening to him in song, you begin to know the creator. Michael Juan Nunez makes it happen.