Courtesy Bob Guthridge

B.B. King, 82 and going strong, last played Roanoke on Dec. 11, 2004.

B.B. King is 82 years old. He'll be 83 on Sept. 16. The blues giant could just lean back at this point, and no one would blame him.

Instead, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member performs about 100 dates a year. He's playing at the Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre on Tuesday. He has a new record coming out in August. He is scheduled to begin hosting a blues show on XM radio in September. And the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center is opening in Indianola, Miss. -- the town where he grew up -- just three days before his birthday. Coincidentally, Indianola is less than 100 miles south of the fabled "crossroads" of U.S. highways 49 and 61.

One thing King does not do these days is press, at least not when he's on the "off" portion of his two weeks on, two weeks off road schedule. But it's not like there's much more to know about the man born Riley B. King. His life, career and musical output have all been dissected ad nauseam.

Fortunately, he has new projects in the pipeline.

His record, "One Kind Favor" (inset, right), is due for release Aug. 26, according to a Geffen Records news release. It features the work of producer T Bone Burnett, most recently in Roanoke on June 2 with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, for whom he had produced the record "Raising Sand." The sidemen for "One Kind Favor" include more giants: Dr. John on piano, Nathan East on upright bass and Jim Keltner on drums.

The record is King's tribute to the artists who influenced him when he was an emerging talent in the 1950s. Cuts include Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave is Kept Clean," T-Bone Walker's "I Get So Weary," Lonnie Johnson's "My Love is Down" and Big Bill Broonzy's "Backwater Blues."

King told rollingstone.com that making the record was "a ball."

"There were no egos, and when we sat down, it started to come together like we had been playing for years. I was sad when the project was over."

Burnett told Billboard magazine that he first saw King perform at a Dallas ballroom about 1965, and he wanted to re-create the sound he remembered from that performance.

"We all cut it just sitting around in a circle," Burnett told Billboard. "I tried to be very true to who [King] was when I first heard him and that energy -- in other words, not try to update him in any way."

King has not been performing material from that record in recent shows, a Geffen publicist said.

Not that there is a shortage of material from which to draw, but he also takes time to tell stories to the audience. Here is an excerpt from the Kansas City Star's review of his Jan. 25 performance:

"King is 82 and he is ailing, but he hasn't lost the will nor the way to make a crowd laugh at his stories and appreciate his music.

"He sat down the entire night, but he performed for about 15 minutes less than two hours. He spent a large chunk of that time telling stories. Some of them were distant memories spun into jokes, like the one about violating the drinking fountain signs back in the bad days, which is how he learned 'white water tastes just like colored water.'

"He's not the flashy guitar player he used to be, but King is still the reigning master of his domain -- a natural player with several passels of licks at his disposal. He also indulged his very friendly crowd with some of his best-known songs: 'Let the Good Times Roll,' 'I Need You So,' 'Every Day (I Have the Blues)', 'Rock Me Baby' and 'The Thrill Is Gone.' "

On the Net: bbking.com bbkingmuseum.org