01. Whiskey Train (4:25)
02. Daddy Are You Angry (4:11)
03. New York State Of Mind (3:20)
04. Sambuca (2:44)
05. Juke Joint Jumpin' (2:55)
06. Easy Street (2:55)
07. One Last Lick (2:44)
08. Cross Cust Saw (4:09)
09. Hang Me Out To Dry (4:47)
10. Wasted Years (3:37)
11. My Friend Sam (1:55)
12. Thunderbird (5:15)
13. Red House (8:07)

Bass – Brad Russell (tracks: 8), Randy Coven (tracks: 1-7, 9-12), Richie 'The Bat' Scarlet (tracks: 13)
Drums – Aynsley Dunbar (tracks: 8), Kevin Neal (tracks: 1-7, 9-12), Paul Beretta (tracks: 13)
Lead Guitar – Leslie West
Rhythm Guitar – Kevin Russell (tracks: 8), Steve Hunter (tracks: 1-7, 9-13)
Vocals – Leslie West

Tom Davis of Innocent Bystander writes about "Dodgin' The Dirt", "If he ever had one foot in the grave, it was tapping time. They could never cover up this Dirt Dodgin' Rock 'n' Roll Death Camp survivor. Leslie West loves to laugh at the irony of his perpetuity and the fact that "Dodgin' The Dirt" might be his finest work. The big man from Mountain has lost weight but the figure he cuts is no less imposing. Leslie has a signature sound. You can hear it in everything he does from "Mississippi Queen" to three cuts on Billy Joel's "River Of Dreams". "Dodgin' The Dirt" - there's that distinctive tone and violin control vibrato. 'His kind of guitar' is clear focused, coming from that center inside where talent transcends personality, time and Long Island. Turn it up. LOUD. It won't escape you." ---guitar9.com

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01. Blues Before Sunrise( Leroy Carr) 4:33
02. I Woke Up This Morning(Graham Barnes) 4:35
03. Four Day Creep(Ida Cox) 3:18
04. Hit The Road Jack(Percy Mayfield) 3:44
05. Standin' Around Crying(Muddy Waters) 6:38
06. One Thing On My Mind(Sammy Hagar/Ronnie Montrose) 3:52
07. Green River(John C. Fogerty) 3:54
08. Sinner's Prayer(Lowell Fulson, Lloyd C Glenn) 6:31
09. Woman(Andy Fraser, Poul Rogers) 4:07
10. Tore Down(Sonny Thompson) 3:30
11. Summertime(Geprge Gershwin) 7:09

Bass – Tim Fahey
Drums – Aynsley Dunbar
Guitar, Vocals – Leslie West
Organ [Hammond] – Art Groom
Piano – Brian Mitchell
Rhythm Guitar – Kevin Curry

Leslie West isn't a particularly innovative guitarist, and his style and approach have barely moved an eyelash since he first broke into the public consciousness with Mountain back in the early '70s, but boy can this guy get tone! West still sings with a gear-shredding roar and his guitar lines sound heavier than plutonium on this set of blues-rockers, and if he doesn't exactly do anything that he hasn't done before, his laser-on-steroids precision as a guitar player is still undeniable and when he gets cranking, it's guaranteed to blow the dust out of the eaves. That said, the most striking tracks here are the ones where he throttles things down just a hair. The opener, a version of Leroy Carr's classic "Blues Before Sunrise," is huge sounding without letting that overwhelm the song, while West's take on Percy Mayfield's "Hit the Road Jack" (best known in the Ray Charles version) is relatively sleek and elegant. The rendition of the Gershwins' "Summertime" that closes the set is plenty moody, with West's guitar weeping like the proverbial willow tree. He works the distinctive riff of John Fogerty's "Green River" for all it will give, turning this slice of faux swamp rock into a muscular monster ready to eat the whole bayou. These are the high points. Elsewhere, when the thunder and lightning of West's guitar lines die down, you're left with fairly rote arrangements of songs that seem essentially interchangeable. West's fans will get exactly what they expect with Blue Me, which means that West is doing his job, but there really isn't anything here that wasn't already in the first 20 seconds of "Mississippi Queen" when it hit the airwaves some 30-plus years ago. ---Steve Leggett, allmusic.com

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1. Boom Boom
2. Don't Start Me Talkin'
3. Cross Cut Saw
4. Blues Before Sunrise
5. Hit the Road Jack
6. Crossroads
7. House of the Rising Sun
8. Baby Please Don't Go
9. Sinner's Prayer
10. Look at Little Sister
11. Whisky Train
12. Summertime

Leslie West (vocals, guitar, slide guitar); 
Leslie West; Kevin Curry (guitar, acoustic guitar); 
Todd Wolfe (guitar); 
Brad Russell (guitars); 
Steve Hunter (dobro); 
Brian John Mitchell, Brian Mitchell (piano); 
Art Groom (Hammond b-3 organ); 
Tim Fahey, Tim Bogert (bass guitar); 
Andy Doerschuk, Kevin Neal (drums);
Aynsley Dunbar (drums).

The blues has informed Leslie West's work since the earliest days of Mountain, but Collection, which cherry-picks from his output for the Blues Bureau label (1993-2006), is the most concentrated assemblage yet of the guitarist's covers within the blues idiom. It's easy to imagine West putting plenty of muscle into classics like John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom," Robert Johnson's "Crossroads," and Muddy Waters' "Baby Please Don't Go," and he does. The latter especially burns, with West unreeling a screaming solo and strangled vocals, ably abetted by drummer Aynsley Dunbar, bassist Tim Bogert, and rhythm guitarist Kevin Curry. But some of the most surprising moments occur where you'd least expect them. The album ends with two songs that couldn't be more opposite in tempo: a rowdy take on Procol Harum's "Whisky Train" and a "Summertime" that puts more soul into the George and Ira Gershwin standard than anyone has since Janis Joplin. And Ray Charles' "Hit the Road Jack," stripped down to a core of West's guitar and Brian Mitchell's piano, and devoid of its familiar jumping rhythm, recasts the song in a mournful mode befitting of its finality. --- Jeff Tamarkin, allmusic.com

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