Bluesman Curtis Salgado, over a career that’s included stops with Robert Cray, Roomful of Blues and Santana, has always had an abiding love for R&B, hard soul and nasty funk. Soul Shot brings all of that together

< >> *** STEELY DAN SUNDAY INDEX *** Like another one of Steely Dan’s Aja hits “Deacon Blues,” “Josie” has a specially written intro revisited later in the song that’s absolutely killer.

Over that past few decades, the consolidation of radio and record label ownership has had an “interesting” effect on record releases — they have become quite a bit more homogeneous

Steve Barton, who rose to college-radio fame with the Beatles-y new wave band Translator, scuffs up what has become a reliably sunny solo power pop sound on the new Projector.