Texan blues pioneer Blind Willie Johnson recorded 30 songs for Columbia between 1927-30, several years before Robert Johnson (no relation) cut his series of epochal sides. Perhaps because Blind Willie leaned more toward the overtly spiritual in content, he’s never taken on the mystique or exerted the influence that’s been accorded the other bluesman, an oversight that this new compilation, produced by Jeffrey Gaskill, aims to address. An all-star lineup—Tom Waits, Rickie Lee Jones, Lucinda Williams and others—brings Blind Willie’s music into the present while acknowledging the circumstances in which it was originally created. For Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, it’s Johnson’s otherworldly slide guitar that needs to be recognized; their minimalist “Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning” itself feels like a lost relic of the early 20th century. The Blind Boys of Alabama’s “Mother’s Children Have a Hard Time” channels the spirit of a Deep South Baptist church visit, and on “Let Your Light Shine on Me,” Maria McKee turns in a tour-de-force performance that places her powerful pipes front and center. At only 11 songs, this dynamic tribute cries out for a sequel.