In a music-making career that has spanned almost 50 years, Boz Scaggs is amazed at how little things have changed. "My first album was done in two days," he says. "We knocked it right out, kind of like what I did with my new album, Memphis – that one was done in three days. The circle is almost complete."

Since making his debut with 1965's Boz, which he followed with a two-year stint as the lead singer for the Steve Miller Band before setting solo sail once again, Scaggs has spun magic with a rich, unpredictable genre-mash of R&B, pop-rock and jazz, scoring both critical hits and epic mainstream knockouts with the kind of personal artistry that makes everything he does feel realistic.