** Bill Wyman & the Rhythm Kings

STRUTTIN' OUR STUFF

(Velvel)

It's well known that Wyman can't sing his way out of a paper bag, but on his latest solo project he gets lots of help from the likes of Georgie Fame, Paul Carrack, and the lesser-known Geraint Williams, who adds rough-hewn verisimilitude on cuts like Willie Mabon's "I'm Mad." Only twice on the 12 selections do we get the Stone singing by himself: he goes for an expressive-laryngitis approach on his original "Stuff (Can't Get Enough)" and drops the "expressive" part for "Going Crazy Overnight." This project was at first conceived as just Wyman in a trio or quartet setting but fortunately (for once) fame accrues a certain amount of production excess, and so we have, aside from the guest singers, Eric Clapton supplying expert fills on the Stones' "Melody" (a whimsical number plucked from Black and Blue) and certified raunch from, uh, blues great Peter Frampton on "Tobacco Road." None of this quite coheres and nothing ever catches fire -- or even gives off little sparks. It seems, in the end, a CD composed entirely of filler.

-- Richard C. Walls