Watch Your Back is the sixth studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 released by blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 guitarist

Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

 Guitar Shorty

Guitar Shorty

Guitar Shorty is an American blues guitarist. He is well known for his explosive guitar style and wild stage antics. Billboard magazine said, “his galvanizing guitar work defines modern, top-of-the-line blues-rock. His vocals remain as forceful as ever...

 (David Kearney). The album was released on April 27, 2004 on CD

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 by the label Alligator Records

Alligator Records

Alligator Records is a Chicago-based independent blues record label founded by Bruce Iglauer in 1971.Iglauer started the label with his own savings to record and produce his favorite band Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers, whom his employer, Bob Koester of Delmark Records, declined to record...

. The album has been called a "welcome return for old fans and a perfect introduction for those new to Shorty's long career."

Track listing

1. "Old School" (Harms) — 3:59
2. "Story of My Life" (Harms, Truitt) — 3:13
3. "I'm Gonna Leave You" (Truitt) — 5:44
4. "What She Don't Know" (Truitt) — 3:16
5. "I've Been Working
   I've Been Working
   "I've Been Working" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison appearing on the album His Band and the Street Choir, released in 1970. The song was first an outtake from Morrison's well received album Astral Weeks of 1968...
   
   " (Morrison
   Van Morrison
   Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
   
   ) — 4:33
6. "Get Busy" (Harms) — 3:41
7. "Let My Guitar Do the Talking" (Harms, O'Keefe) — 4:50
8. "It Ain't the Fall That Kills You" (Harms) — 5:11
9. "A Little Less Conversation
   A Little Less Conversation
   "A Little Less Conversation" is a song written by Mac Davis and Billy Strange that was originally performed and written for American rock and roll icon Elvis Presley for the 1968 film Live a Little, Love a Little. When the song was released as a single with "Almost in Love" as the b-side, it became...
   
   " (Davis, Strange) — 4:04
10. "Right Tool for the Job" (Truitt) — 3:44

Personnel

• Guitar Shorty — guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  , vocals
• Sweet William Bouchard — bass
  Bass (instrument)
  Bass describes musical instruments that produce tones in the low-pitched range. They belong to different families of instruments and can cover a wide range of musical roles...
  
  
• Electric Vic Johnson — guitar (rhythm
  Rhythm
  Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
  
  )
• Alvino Bennett — drum
  Drum
  The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
  
  s, percussion
• Jesse Harms — piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
  , producer, engineer, mixing

Production:

• Dan Monick — photography
• Brian Brinkerhoff — producer
• Dan Stout — mastering
• Marc Lipkin — liner notes
• Kevin Niemiec — design

Reception

Allmusic calls the album Shorty's "most fiery and gutsy album yet, a tough and uncompromising slab of steely playing, no-nonsense singing, and solid songs." Reviewer Hal Horowitz says that he "rips into these ten tracks sounding like he's young, hungry, and ready to explode."

Charts

Album - Billboard

Year	Chart	Position
2004	Top Blues Albums	11