Tony Joe White says he always saw the friends he invited to play on his new album--Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, J.J. Cale, Michael McDonald, and the late Waylon Jennings--as »keepers of the fire.« They're also premier custodians of loneliness and despair, the two emotions that lie at the heart of this hypnotic submersion into country/swamp blues. From the kickoff track, »Run for Cover,« with Wayne Jackson of the Memphis Horns, these meditations on mourning--lost lovers, spiritual struggles, anxiety that knows no name and no bottom--grab the listener fast and pull him down into swirling dark waters. For that reason, there's a numbing sameness--on occasion, two songs back-to-back seem to simply be extensions of each other. But while Jennings's effort is more a portrait of the artist testing his chops after suffering a stroke, other collaborations stick in the mind. The dour Knopfler shows up on the most optimistic song, »Not One Bad Thought,« but his vocals still sound like the barely uttered words of a depressive on a bad down. Clapton's voice remains characteristically modest on »Did Somebody Make a Fool Out of You,« yet his guitar work--measured and full of emotion--proves what you don't play is as important as what you do. Still, the best pairing is that with Michael McDonald on »Baby, Don't Look Down.« When White's smoky rumble meets McDonald's bruised, angelic tenor, you'll know why God made music. --Alanna Nash