The houndog

Houndog is the duo of Mike Halby, who has played with Canned Heat and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and David Hidalgo, of Los Lobos. Their self-titled 1999 debut album, recorded in Halby's home studio, is not so much swamp-blues as murk-blues. The basic, at times lo-fi production and gutbucket songs give this a foggy mystery, akin to another of Hidalgo's side projects, the Latin Playboys. Halby has a voice so low it sometimes sounds like a 45 RPM single playing at 33 RPM, and his convincingly throaty style can recall, though it does not imitate, vintage Chess greats like Muddy ...