Cutting-edge, no. Technically dazzling, hardly. Nonetheless it is a privilege to welcome one of the most authentic guitarists of backwoods America to Ronnie’s bandstand for the first time as leader.

Cornell Dupree, a charter member of the Muscle Shoals rhythm section from Memphis, doesn’t win instrumental polls. But without his über-hip touches a lot of jazz-soul-funk classics wouldn’t sound the same.

Where phrasing and tempo-setting are concerned, the adjective “laid-back” might have been coined for Cornell. He started out with King Curtis, Donnie Hathaway and Roberta Flack, and some say he didn’t get enough credit for making a legion of so-so superstars — Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Joe Cocker among them — sound great.

Opening with a blues, Things Ain’t What They Used to Be — “and we all know that” — he eased into a chair, hoisted his axe (a Telecaster copy with a humbucker pick-up nuzzling its maple neck) and spread warmth to every corner of the room, never settling for a lone note where a passing chord would sound richer.

Saxman Ronnie Cuber, on tenor instead of his usual baritone sax, gave the songs the fuzzy, preachy attack they needed. Watching the River Flow (by Dylan) and Mercy Mercy Mercy (by Joe Zawinul) produced his best solos.

Pianist James Allen Smith, bass-guitarist Frank Canino and drummer Clint DeGannon made a crisp rhythm team, though Smith could not recapture the late Richard Tee’s unique rapport with Dupree. That was a once-in-a-lifetime thing.