The Grey Ghost “Grey Ghost”; <i> Spindletop</i>

The Grey Ghost, a.k.a. Roosevelt T. Williams, can stand as a role model to anyone who ever gave up pursuit of a dream because he or she was getting too old. At 89, this jazz/blues singer and pianist from Texas has just released this, his first studio album, a loose and lively collection of songs spanning the barrelhouse tradition from Jellyroll Morton and Scott Joplin on up through Professor Longhair.

The Ghost has the gravelly, world-weary voice of a great Delta blues singer, but because his instrument is the piano rather than the acoustic guitar, there’s a tad less spareness and hence less desolation to his music.

Touches of New Orleans jazz and Chicago Dixieland from sterling guests (such as banjo player Danny Barnes, trombonist Randy Zimmerman and violinist Sebastian Campesi) further enliven the mix. Some of this territory has been mined by Leon Redbone--such period pieces as “Sheik of Araby” and timeless numbers as “You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody Loves You”--but Williams projects an unforced authority, a wisdom of the ages, that few can match.