Carlton, like Lee Ritenour, carved his niche long ago as session hero and sideman extraordinaire (c'mon, Steely Dan and The Partridge Family – that's a CV!), but his solo recordings have that curate's egg quality: good in patches, the not so good bits often featuring his vocals. Strikes Twice features his singing, as on ‘Midnight Parade’, and it's lucky the man had a day job as a fretmaster. Carlton's rocking edge features on ‘The Magician’ and ‘In My Blood’, and the overall tone of the album is of well-tempered soft rock. With Sleepwalk Carlton takes on more jazz and blues inflections, notably on ‘Last Nite’, while ‘Frenchman's Flat’ features some intriguing harmonies, but it's the infectious schmooze of the title track that remains a guilty pleasure for many. Friends builds on Sleepwalk's commercial success, highlighting a wider musical world, thanks to, well, the friends like BB King (on ‘Tequila’) and Michael Brecker, who adds some emotional clout to the balladic title track. Carlton's rarely anything but listenable, articulate and immaculately sure of his taste, and this is a decent place to start if you don't own the originals.