One of the biggest records of 2007 was On the Jimmy Reed Highway, a fond tribute to a legendary musician done by Omar Kent Dykes in collaboration with guitarist Jimmie Vaughan. Dykes’ latest release for Ruf Records, Big Town Playboy, is a sequel of sorts, continuing in a similar vein, with many of the same guest musicians in tow (Vaughan, James Cotton, Lou Ann Barton, Gary Clark, Jr. Derek O’Brien, and the dazzling rhythm team of Wes Starr on drums and Ronnie James on bass), along with harp master Lazy Lester.

Instead of focusing on one blues legend this time around, Big Town Playboy covers a much broader range of artists, though most of them worked in styles similar to Reed’s. Added to the mix are songs by Smokey Smothers (“I Can’t Judge Nobody”), Jimmy McCracklin (“Think,” a soulful collaboration with Barton), John Lee Hooker (“No More Doggin’”), a trio of Excello classics, two featuring Lazy Lester on harp (“Hello Mary Lee,” “Dream Girl,” and “King Bee”), Ivory Joe Hunter (“Since I Met You Baby”), and Sonny Boy Williamson II (via G. L. Crockett’s “Man Down There”).

Reed, along with his longtime cohort, Eddie Taylor, still get their props with a quartet of songs, two by Taylor (the title track and “Up Side Your Head”) and two by Reed (“Mary Mary” and the Dykes/Barton duet, “Close Together”). If you heard the previous disc, you’re already aware that Dykes and Vaughan cut their teeth on Jimmy Reed, so you know these representations are first-rate.

That’s the great thing about Big Town Playboy (and its predecessor) ... all of the artists involved grew up with the music. They loved it, they revered it, and they went on to not only play it, but to expand on it and reach an even bigger audience than the original artists. In a way, the musicians on this disc have been paying tribute to these legends for years with their own recordings and performances. This disc is just the icing on the cake.