The killer is back. Well, let's face it, he never really went away. Not only that, but at the ripe old age of 75, you wouldn't want to count on this being his swan song either. After all, many thought that of his 2006 collection of duets Last Man Standing.
Here he calls on some of the same star names who appeared on that album. This celebrity roster includes Mick, Keef and Ronnie going Stone alone on three tracks, Ringo Starr, Solomon Burke, Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson, Mavis Staples - the list goes on.
It says something for Lewis' staying power that despite the presence of such luminaries the album remains unmistakably his own.
The title track may have been co-written by Kris Kristofferson but he sings the defiant lines as if they were from his autobiography : "If I look like a voodoo doll that's what I am , who takes his licking standing tall, who'd rather bite you back than crawl, that's what I am".
This contrary attitude makes the point, in no uncertain terms, that while he may be in his twilight years, he has no intention of going soft or of going gentle into that good night.
Inevitably, there are some moments when nostalgia puts him in a more temperate state of mind. He introduces the Gospel tune, Railroad to Heaven by recalling, in a spoken word intro, how he used to sing the song as a lad in Louisiana, adding "it was good then and it's good now".
The past also rears its head on another Kristofferson number, 'Sunday Morning Coming Down', a touching yet melancholy reflection on the "disappearing dream of yesterday" which has the kind of poignancy that made Johnny Cash's final albums so memorable. As if aware of this, Jerry Lee's vocal owes much to the Man in Black's version of the same song.
But at the same time, there is no sense of pathos or self pity in the makeover of Middle Age Crazy, a song by Sonny Throckmorton which Lewis first recorded in 1977. This is written from the perspective of a 40 year old "going on 20" desperately trying to hang on to his youth and "trying to prove he still can". When sung by the same man in his mid seventies (who no longer has anything left to prove) the song morphs into a kind of 'I will survive' statement.
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It's good to report that Lewis' infamous hell raising spirit is intact on the rip roaring Rockin' My Life (backed by upstarts Kid Rock and Slash) and he is clearly in his element for the honky-tonk country lilt of Merle Haggard's Swing Doors or when kicking over the traces for Roll Over Beethoven.
Jerry Lee is the star turn throughout even when Sheryll Crow and Mavis Staples take it upon themselves to share lead vocals on the standards You Are My Sunshine and Will The Circle Be Unbroken respectively. Neither of these songs would have suffered had Crow and Staples blended into the background as much as Gillian Welch does on two tracks I Really Don't Want To Know and Please Release Me.
I would not go so far as to say this collection was all killer and no fillers - Bad Moon Rising with John Fogerty is a little dull and Whiskey River with Willie Nelson doesn't really come off.
Stretching the album out to 18 tracks is a little over ambitious (but then again Lewis does have has a long list of friends to keep happy).
Aside from these misfires, there is no question that the album is a triumph. It is brimful of energy and shows that Lewis is still in remarkably good voice.
Jerry Lee was a vibrant force in the early days of rock and roll and over half a century on he has not lost any of his fire.
He was good then and he is good now. Long may he run.
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