Shakin Smith's inspiration, Sonny Boy Williamson, left, plays with Smith's current collaborator, guitarist Robert Lockwood Jr., in Memphis, Tenn., in 1949.

Blues followers tend toward hero worship. Though Williamson had died in 1965, Smith knew that Lockwood had gone on to become the house guitarist for Chess Records, the mighty Chicago label that turned out most of the great blues records of the '50s and '60s. Lockwood made recordings of his own, with blues giants like pianist Roosevelt Sykes and guitarist Johnny Shines. In his 20s, when Smith began leading his own band, his admiration for the guitarist stayed with him.

"I always wanted to meet Robert. But he didn't use to come through this area," Smith recalls, noting that in the '60s, blues didn't have the commercial appeal it has today.

"He was like the closest living thing to Sonny Boy Williamson. They were very close. I always admired Robert's guitar work. I always wanted a guy who would sound like Robert, and I never found him."

That's why, 30 years later, Smith - now an impressive virtuoso in his own right, an endorsee of Hohner harmonicas and a member since 1985 of the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame - has finally collaborated with Lockwood himself.

Now 85 years old, the great master of the 12-string recorded a couple of tracks on Smith's new CD, "Shakin Smith: Wizard of the Harmonica," currently receiving air play on WBFO and available at Borders Books and Music. For a Lockwood listener, there's no mistaking the guitarist's exuberant, jazz-tinged playing, which is still unique and unmistakable.

Smith grins, telling how they descended into the basement of Lockwood's Cleveland home and recorded two numbers, "Sweet Little Girl" and the instrumental "Chess Piece." Lockwood, who didn't charge Smith for his participation, obviously enjoyed the project. At the end of "Chess Piece," he can be heard joking in his inimitable, earthy way.

For Smith, the recording is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. For the rest of us, it's an extraordinary glimpse into an unusual friendship.

Lockwood says that Smith is "one of the best harmonica players out there today." Reached on the phone in Cleveland, he refers to him with obvious affection as "Shaky."

He and Smith met over 20 years ago, and over the years, Lockwood has monitored his artistic evolution. "He has improved some," he says, in a sly understatement. Press him for details, and he laughs. "How do you improve?" he jeers. "You get better."

For an octogenarian, Lockwood maintains quite a busy schedule. An exercise nut, he keeps in excellent shape. He travels tirelessly. "It's how I make my living," he shrugs. In a few months, he'll be touring France and Germany, accompanied by fellow blues veterans Honeyboy Edwards and Henry Townsend. (Edwards is 92 and Townsend is 97, making Lockwood, as Smith points out, "the baby of that bunch.")

Two years ago, Lockwood's Verve CD called "I Got to Find Me a Woman" earned him a Grammy nomination, and on his new Telarc CD, "Delta Crossroads," he plays solo 12-string, revisiting the complex Delta blues he inherited from his stepfather, the cult figure Robert Johnson.

Presuming he could find the time, might Lockwood ever make another recording with Smith?

"Shaky and me? Yeah," Lockwood reflects. "If he needs help, sure, I don't mind that. He's a friend."

It's a privilege, though, to know the sometimes taciturn guitar great personally. Grills, a former Smith sideman who now leads the Rochester band the Roadmasters, was on hand for the basement recording session. He savors the memory. "It was so great spending time with Robert, getting an opportunity to sit around the kitchen table and talk to him," he says.

"Robert's a very deep, serious person," he adds, "and I think sometimes people interpret that wrong."

It could be said that Smith, who is a very private person, has suffered over the years from similar misconceptions. Grills hopes that more people will get to know the harmonica player through his new CD.

"I don't think calling Shake a harmonica virtuoso is a stretch - not at all," he declares. "I really hope with this disc that he gets out to a wider audience."

Smith's association with the blues goes back to when he was 5 and asked for a harmonica for Christmas. As he grew up, he listened to black radio programming. "It was common to hear B.B. King, Slim Harpo and Jimmy Reed - he was a big influence on me," he says.

By 16, Smith was hanging out at the Governor's Inn on Sycamore Street, playing alongside the bar's genial owner, James Peterson. (Peterson's toddler son, Lucky, grew up to be a successful blues recording artist.)

Jimmy Reed played the club. ("He had to be propped up on stage," Smith sighs, acknowledging Reed's alcohol problems.) So did Muddy Waters, Freddy King, Earl Hooker and a host of other giants. Once, in a dream situation for a young blues fan, Smith found himself the center of a tug-of-war between Howlin' Wolf and Junior Wells. "You're going to mess that boy up," Wolf yelled at Wells, who had sat down to tutor him. "I can show him how to play that stuff the right way!"

Smith met Lockwood in 1977, at the Bona Vista in north Buffalo, opening a show for the guitarist. Fearful that he'd inadvertently duplicate one of Lockwood's numbers, he approached him before the concert to sound him out about his song list.

"I said, "Mr. Lockwood, hi, I'm the guy who's opening this show for you,' " he said. "I asked him, "Is there anything you want me to do or not do?' He looked at me funny. I felt like a jerk. I said, "I've admired you for a long time. I just wouldn't want to do anything that would interfere with your show.' "

The story ended happily. Lockwood was simply confused, having never had a musician act with such extreme courtesy. "Now he embarrasses me by telling that story," Smith says.

Over the decades, Lockwood proved a good mentor for Smith. "I'm so influenced by jazz, and it's encouraging to see someone like Robert," Smith says.

"As great as Robert is as a blues musician, he considers himself to be more a musician."

A little over 10 years ago, he made Smith quit smoking. Smith says that Lockwood, an ex-smoker himself, snapped at him, "I can't understand why someone with your talent would smoke cigarettes. What in hell is the matter with you?" Smith, who had always failed in his attempts to give up smoking, quit cold turkey, for good.

Artistically, too, Lockwood helped Smith move forward.

"He's encouraged me to be my own man, writing my own songs," Smith says. He told me, "The way you play, you don't have to yield to anybody.' "

Significantly, all the songs on "Wizard of the Harmonica" are original compositions.

Besides Smith, Lockwood and Grills, musicians on the album include pianist Ann Philippone, drummers Rob Scheuer and Murad Gunduz, bassist Steve Gomes and guitarist Darin Guest. Holding the album together is Smith's current band: guitarist Paul Bruschini, bassist Sandra Dunbar and drummer Roger Schlee.

Smith admits that the 14 songs, from "Hard Kind of Life" to the stormy "Dark Rhapsody," are autobiographical. "They all tell a story about my life, that's for sure."

Restless titles aside, though, the project's completion finds Smith in an optimistic mood.

He recently got married for the second time (he thanks his wife, Anne Marie Smith, on the CD jacket). And he's proud of the album, a balance between the past and the present. "You should honor tradition," Smith says. "but not get lost in it." Strange as it might sound for someone singing the blues, he seems happy.