Joan Armatrading, “Into the Blues” (429 Records)
David Bauder / Associated Press

There’s something frightening about hearing an artist describe a disc as a great opportunity to play blues guitar. Unless it’s B.B. King, of course.

That’s not to offend blues fans. It’s just that songwriting tends to get overlooked in genre exercises, and the best picking in the world won’t salvage perfunctory compositions.

Joan Armatrading doesn’t completely avoid that trap, but she’s to good a songwriter to get lost in it. She’s always had an earthy way of digging into the emotions of love and loss. Those powers have only deepened with age.

The best work here are songs that are really only cousins to the blues, like the light reggae of “A Woman in Love” and the raving rocker “There Ain’t a Woman Alive (Who Likes to Look in the Mirror Like You Do).” “Play the Blues” and “Into the Blues” aren’t all blues at all; they’re love songs where blues is character.

She can pick, too. The woman has never played better guitar on record.

Joan’s so playful and engaged here that we’ll skip by the utter mess “Liza,” and the few spots where is sounds like blues you’d hear at a theme bar.

We also simply love the sense of humor in including a lyric sheet for Deep Down,” which repeats the title phrase a mere 98 times.