Since the early '90s Belfast guitar whiz Gary Moore has returned again and again to the blues, leaving his metal phase far behind. Old New Ballads Blues is exactly what the title says it is, a mix of old blues (covers of songs by Elmore James, Willie Dixon, and Otis Rush), new blues (five Moore originals), ballads (half the album) and, well, blues (by one definition or another, everything here passes for blues). The real surprise is that the strongest songs are the original Moore-penned ballads, as Moore gives powerful and atmospheric performances (both vocally and as a guitarist) on "Gonna Rain Today," "No Reason to Cry," and a solid horn-augmented remake of one of his best songs, "Midnight Blues," from what is easily his best album, 1990s million-selling Still Got the Blues.

Candy Dulfer is a Dutch smooth jazz, funk alto saxophonist and occasional singer who began playing at the age of six. She founded her band, Funky Stuff, when she was fourteen years old. Her debut album Saxuality (1990) received a Grammy nomination. Dulfer has released eleven studio albums, two live albums, and one compilation album. She has performed and recorded songs with musicians including her father Hans Dulfer, Prince, Dave Stewart, Van Morrison, and Maceo Parker, and has performed live with Alan Parsons (1995), Pink Floyd (1990), and Tower of Power (2014). She hosted the Dutch television series Candy meets… (2007), in which she interviews fellow musicians. In 2013 she became a judge in the fifth season of the Dutch version of X Factor.