This spring, two seasoned musicians marked a return to the recording studio. Legendary rhythm and blues organist Booker T. hooked up with the Drive-By Truckers to record 10 riff-rattling tracks, with none other than Neil Young playing lead guitar. Seven original songs accompany covers of Tom Waits’s “Get Behind The Mule,” OutKast's “Hey Ya” and the Truckers’ own “Space City,” showing longtime Booker T listeners a different side of the former MGs frontman.

Influential blues guitarist J.J. Cale, meanwhile, goes solo as a multi-instrumentalist to put the polish on his seamless new collection of toe-tappers (although Eric Clapton pops in for a spell on “Where the Sun Don't Shine, ” a previously unreleased collaboration).

Booker T seems intent on demonstrating that he and his Hammond B-3 can still hold their own in a messy, choppy, rock ’n’ roll world. Cale appears to argue that, despite the dominance of digital music, his shuffling brand of blues can still border on the sublime. And both have made solid cases for their continued relevance.