Over the course of his 62 years, Jim Byrnes has released a small but highly impressive body of work as a musician while achieving success as a TV and film actor. On Everywhere West he enlists producer Steve Dawson in blending a variety of blues styles from different eras into a unique and compelling whole. Byrnes’ musical chops are in top form here — his growling vocals display great finesse, while his instrumental skills shine on everything from acoustic slide-guitar to pedal steel. The album’s arrangements throw in plenty of delightful curveballs, transforming Robert Johnson’s “From Four Until Late” into raucous New Orleans-style tune and countrifying the Bobby “Blue” Bland hit “Yield Not to Temptation” with banjo and shaker. Byrnes finds new ways to interpret songs as different as the poignant folk standard “He Was a Friend of Mine” and Jimmy Reed’s witty “You Can’t Get That Stuff No More.” The closing track “Me and Piney Brown” is a heartfelt original tune that pays tribute to the blues elders who inspired Byrnes back in his younger days.