Artist: Eric Clapton

Album: Clapton

Label: Reprise

Eric Clapton sings Hoagy Carmichael? Would you believe Irving Berlin? While not quite an album exclusively comprised of Great American Songbook standards, the simply-titled Clapton finds Slowhand painting from new pots, assimilating new musical orphans into his mansion of genius, among them several chestnuts from Tin Pan Alley days. These nuggets are brilliant, but, unsurprisingly, Clapton is at his best when he returns to the blues that made him.

When you've been at it as long as Clapton - and don't need a dime from new album sales - going into the studio is more about intrinsic motivation. This time around, Clapton co-produces with band member Doyle Bramhall II and collaborates with much of his touring band, but through inspired arranging and musical guests, creates a fresh and delightful contribution to his canon. The album's opener, "Travelin' Alone" is a conversation between Clapton's precise lead licks, a "Spirit in the Sky" rhythm guitar riff, and a chirping Hammond organ. Other blues numbers which soar are "Judgment Day" and Lane Hardin's classic "Hard Times Blues." What's most fun about this album are the moments when Clapton isn't Clapton, when he takes risks not befitting a living legend. He breathes new life into old tunes such as "Rocking Chair" by Carmichael (written in 1932) and Berlin's "How Deep is the Ocean," an acoustic crooner classic, a la "Change Your World," given sex appeal by Wynton Marsalis' trumpet and the London Session Orchestra. And the Burke/Spina classic "My Very Good Friend the Milkman" is a revelation, Clapton sassing his way through the Fats Waller hit while a room-full of New Orleans horns wander around. Few artists could make the flat-out goofiness of this song work. Dixieland horns also turn up on "That's No Way to Get Along," a herky-jerky, call-and-response free-for-all that's reminiscent of the finer improvisational moments on Springsteen's We Shall Overcome. "Run Back to Your Side," the only Clapton-penned tune in the bunch, sounds like a sound check jam session throwaway, but is refreshing after an album of departures.

After a few times through Clapton, you understand the genius. The album is mellow, but never boring, and there's a precision to the execution of each track. He may have reached AARP status, but Clapton is showing no signs of slowing down.