"I used to think to myself years ago, 'I wish somebody would pay me to play blues covers all the time," guitarist Murali Coryell recalls, "because I can do that about as well as anybody else I hear doing it. I should be able to do it.' Now I am doing it, and it's great."

The 29-year-old Coryell, very nearly gushing over his latest accomplishment, is living his boyhood dream as co-producer of his new album, a collection of both obscure and well-known blues tunes, entitled simply "2120."

Sharing production duties with Coryell is Marshall Chess, son of Chess Records founder Leonard Chess, both men legends in the worlds of blues and rock and roll.

As Coryell explains, this album could be just the break he needs. "Marshall Chess produced seven albums for the Rolling Stones --- from 'Sticky Fingers' to 'Black and Blue' --- all their best rock and roll stuff. He's the guy who came up with the famous tongue and lips logo, and it was him that put the zipper on the 'Sticky Fingers' album jacket."

Coryell say that the 21 tracks of classic blues covers were culled from the vaults of not only the Chess label, but the VeeJay and Cobra imprints. These are all catalogs in which Marshall Chess has ownership or co-ownership. The album, he says, "is named after 2120 South Michigan Ave. in Chicago, the address of the original Chess Studios.

"We did some pretty obscure stuff on the album, some which had never even been released. We did two Muddy Waters songs. One was called 'She's Into Something,' that's on that Robert Cray/Johnny Copeland/Albert Collins 'Showdown' album. I don't know if that's going to make the album or not. The other one had never been released, 'Rich Man's Woman.' The idea was to do a lot of rare tunes and even though we did some well-known songs, like 'I Can't Hold Out' by Elmore James and 'Bright Lights, Big City' by Jimmy Reed, the rest are very rare-and different."

Contemplating the recent rise in the popularity of the blues, Coryell credits not only young fans, but young artists, such as himself "Blues music is having a resurgence, for whatever reason. My theory is that things go in cycles. It's popular, then it's not. Any lasting music will find its people. I think that all these young cats like Kenny Wayne Sheppard and Johnny Lang have a lot to do with it, just like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Robert Cray had ten years ago. I just don't think that you have to be 70-years-old to be called a bluesman."

The project, tracked at Bearsville Studios, is nearly complete and will be promptly shopped to "respected blues labels" by Marshall Chess.

"The key," Coryell says, "is to get it out as quickly as possible. We're professional musicians and can't be waiting around for something to happen, so we've got to get it out there. This is our career, we're professional musicians. The blues doesn't have massive advances, so we can't wait 16 months to tour or anything like that."

Recorded with just a trio --- consisting of himself on guitar and vocals, bassist Bill Foster and drummer Rod Gross --- simplicity goes hand in hand with an expeditious handling of the project. "It's just much easier with a trio," he says. "We're planning on having a sequel to '2120,' and then maybe expand it a little with keyboards or harp or whatever."

But first things first. Coryell says that sequels are another time and place away, and his sights are set for the very near future, a future which may extend beyond even what a teenaged Murali Coryell might have imagined, one which may place his name among those of the greats of a genre which never dies.

Coryell, son of fusion pioneer Larry Coryell, has long waited for the recognition he deserves as a blues artist. "What this album is going to do is hopefully establish me as a 'blues person.' With (first release) 'Eyes Wide Open,' there was sometimes the question: 'What is this? Blues? R&B?' This time we just went straight out with the blues and I think we did great and I can't wait for it to come out."