Bastrop teens Alex and Glenn Peterson Jr. summon a higher power with burning blues, but they didn’t bottle it here. Leaning on canonical classics in the wake hopefully spreading behind Gary Clark Jr., the brothers’ britches aren’t big enough to fill out the material. Albert King’s “You’re My Woman” opens with tasteful fills, but Glenn’s delivery is flat, emotionless. The stone-soul spark of Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “I Wouldn’t Treat a Dog (The Way You Treated Me)” grooves respectably, but again, the singer could take a cue from his heated guitar playing. Evergreen “Don’t You Lie to Me” also works up six-string sizzle, but a dearth of swing both in rhythm and production undercut it and Earl King’s “Come On.” Original “I Gotta Go” shows promise in its simple titular hook, but not the lyric: “I gotta go, baby, ’cause you just don’t treat me the same.” Instrumental “Feelin’ Like Home” cooks up some SRV-style chitlins that prove the vocals an unwanted distraction elsewhere. Likewise, a wordless take on “Amazing Grace” sung by Alex’s violin pulls heartstrings. Alex and Glenn Peterson Jr. can peel off some notes, but The Peterson Brothers goes through the motions rather than emoting.

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This article appears in September 4 • 2015.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.