For a man who wrote such rock standards as "After Midnight," "Cocaine," "Call Me the Breeze," and "Magnolia," J.J. Cale maintains a surprisingly low profile. The Oklahoma singer/songwriter pioneered the fluid, laid-back, country-blues shuffles that provided aural blueprints for Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton, but not one of Cale's 12 albums has penetrated the top-40 charts. Guitar Man, Cale's 12th album, is his strongest in a long time for several reasons. He recorded it almost all by himself out in his California desert studio, and his imagination seems to have been stimulated by his experiments with drum machines, synthesizers, and sequencers. A bluesy rootsiness still dominates his sound, but around the edges is a new high-tech crispness that provides a welcome edge to his lazy drawl. --Geoffrey Himes