It takes a particular daring, or maybe outright hubris, to take on material introduced to the world by the likes of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, John Lee Hooker and other masters of countrified urban blues. That's what the Reverend Shawn Amos & Chris "Doctor" Roberts do here, with a stripped-down approach dependent upon just the two of them. Amos handles vocals and harmonica, while Roberts is in charge of electric and acoustic guitar.

I'm sure Amos & Roberts, who know their blues, are aware that what they're doing has historical resonance. In the early days, in the 1920s and '30s, the (usually) headline performer, who roamed the South performing on street corners, juke joints or wherever money was to be made, traveled with a second musician whose purpose was to fill out the sound of a single guitar. (A secondary consideration was personal protection. The blues highway was a dangerous place.)

The Cause of It All will please even those to whom such titles as "Spoonful," "Hoochie Coochie Man" and "Baby, Please Don't Go" are far from novel. The other numbers are also familiar, though a tad less so (I had to dig into my collection to find the Wolf original of "Color and Kind," for instance), and so include the sensation of something more or less like discovery as one hears them. In any event, each cut evokes, in its own soulful, assured way, the mystery of the blues.

This is the kind of album that serves to introduce novices to the blues (as the mid-1960s Rolling Stones did to me) while at the same time satisfying veterans up for a creative, if still within the tradition, reading of a standard (me many years later). It helps, no doubt, the classic blues are some of the most extraordinary songs written in America.

On the other hand, it takes a particular collection of talents to carry them. The bare text only opens the subject. The power of the blues derives in good part from the singer's and players' interpretative skills, which never falter on Cause. Rather astoundingly, as each listening keeps feeling like a fresh revelation, the album gives the sensation of being a small, unexpected, unpretentious masterpiece.