Live To Be This, the eleventh album from the Boneshakers, is proof that time can’t dull the spirit, but it can distill it. Nearly three decades deep, the band led by Detroit-born guitar slinger Randy Jacobs and vocal dynamo Jenny Langer comes back swinging with a record that’s all blood, sweat, and soul.

Produced by longtime ally John Wooler, the same man who signed them to Virgin Records back in the ‘90s, Live To Be This is equal parts celebration and statement. It’s a love letter to Motor City funk, Memphis groove, and the Muscle Shoals sound, delivered with that unmistakable Boneshakers bite. From the first downbeat, the band leans hard into the roots that built them, the raucous guitar lines, gut-punch brass hits, and a lead singer who can bring down the walls with one note.

The guest list is as jaw-dropping as the album itself. Blues icon Bobby Rush brings the house down in a scorching duet with Langer on “Salty,” a swampy, slow-burning stunner that stands as the fiery core of the record. Elsewhere, harmonica legend Charlie Musselwhite, bassist/producer Don Was, and guitar great Coco Montoya help push the band’s groove into deeper waters. And let’s not overlook a thunderous assist from Gregg Bissonette behind the kit. Yet Live To Be This is more than a star-studded blues jam. It’s a seamless blend of originals and high-octane covers of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Betty Davis, and Ike & Tina Turner, turning them into 21st-century firestorms. Langer’s voice is dynamite on a fuse, while Jacobs' playing remains a masterclass in controlled chaos.

For those tracing the lineage, the bones of the Boneshakers were forged in the heat of Was (Not Was) when Jacobs met the late, great Sweetpea Atkinson during sessions at Detroit’s Sound Suite Studio. That collaboration led to a wild ride through the ‘80s and early ‘90s, including the left-field funk smash “Walk The Dinosaur.” But if that era was about breaking rules, Live To Be This is about making them. With a legacy built on sweat-drenched shows and soul-deep playing, The Boneshakers aren’t just living to be this, they’re thriving while doing this. And they’ve never sounded more alive.