The Blues Blog (9) A regular round-up of new releases One of the more excusable reasons for my friend The Postman being stuck in his 60s / 70s time-warp, is his fondness for live music and his still vivid recollections of storming gigs at The Marquee, The Crawdaddy and (closer to home) the Il Rondo. Its hard to argue with his essential premise that the blues is best served up live, not only on the basis that many of today's most promising artists seem to lose their spark once they enter a studio, but also because some of the finest and most durable recordings in the music’s eighty year history have been captured straight to tape during live performances. It would be surprising if even the most ardent admirers of Muddy Waters, B.B. King and The Allman Brothers didn’t rate those albums taken from Newport, The Regal and the Fillmore respectively as being among their very best. By the strangest of coincidences this months postbag contains five newly released live discs from concerts over the last thirty years. Oldest of these, Bocce Boogie from 1978, captures a genuine moment in blues history when an impromptu band of Big Walter Horton, Guitar Johnny Nicholas, Ronnie Youngblood Earl, Ted Harvey, Mudcat Ward, and Anthony Giarossi came together as the entertainment at the wedding of mutual friends. Sometimes a less than pristine quality can positively enhance a great performance, and the background chatter of the 150 guests (crammed into a tiny club in Rhode Island licensed for only 75!) is certainly no impediment to appreciating the natural talent at work here. The atmosphere is tight and sweaty but simultaneously cool and laid back, conducive to blues at its best; and the band cruise effortlessly through a set largely made up of classics including “Trouble in Mind”, “My Babe” and “Every Day I Have The Blues”, (where they are joined by Sugar Ray Norcia). These tapes have been lost for many a year and their recent resurrection by the Topcat label should see this classic set rightly preserved for posterity. Also on Topcat and reaping similar benefits from a spontaneous raw recording comes a boisterous offering from Hollywood Fats and The Paladins, taken from a block- rocking night at the Greenville Avenue Bar and Grill, Dallas Texas in December 1985. In many respects it could easily have been from thirty years earlier in both style and recording finesse, but its a cracking release nonetheless. Fats himself has history with the greats including John Lee, Muddy, Buddy Guy, Canned Heat, The Blasters and many more, and his experience shines through here. A blistering guitarist, he breathes new life into a selection of less predictable standards from Freddy King, Jimmy Reed, Junior Parker, Little Milton and others, bringing into play an impressive range of full-on guitar styles from Chicago blues to Jump to rockabilly. In support, the rhythm section of Thomas Yearsley and Scott Campbell provide a thundering but disciplined undercurrent, and Dave Gonzalez adds some edgy but soulful vocals. Taken together it’s loud, fast and imposing and so very live you might be standing at the back of the room. Several of the Burnside clan including Pa turn out for this session recorded Live at the L.A. Mint in 1998 but it is eldest son Duwayne, moving from rhythm to lead guitar, who fronts the Mississippi Mafia on this occasion and carries the honours. Unsurprisingly the band stick to their distinctive blend of hill country blues and heavy soul, partly based on originals and partly using familiar songs (“Cross Cut Saw”, “Dust My Broom”, nearly twenty minutes of “Hoochie Coochie Man”) as a platform on which to build. Undeniably powerful stuff, it is rife with Albert King references, ably complimented by brother Cedric’s powerful drumming and Eddie Baytoss’ neo-psychedelic organ washes The only downside is to make you sorry you werent actually there. For R.L. completists the old man makes enough interventions throughout for this Blues Boulevard release to be indispensable for the collection. Blues Boulevard have provided a real service to blues fans these last few years with a continual flow of quality reissues, and they have joined forces with the aforementioned Topcat label to give us the opportunity to revisit Jim Suhler and Alan Haynes’ Live at the Blue Cat Blues Club. When the Johnny Winter (and AC/DC!) influenced George Thorogood compatriot Suhler, and the more traditional sometime Fabulous Thunderbird Haynes, collaborated on this project in 2000 it was distinguished by inclusion in at least one list of the top 100 live blues albums of all time. Its a muscular affair with the two axe-men pulling no punches as they trade heavy licks around three of Suhler’s own songs and a quartet of covers including beefed-up opener Louisiana Red’s “Too Poor to Die” and a closing “Are You Experienced”. Elsewhere, Eddie Taylor’s “Knocking At Your Door” sees them break out the slides in Allman-esque style, while the mood is tempered briefly as Haynes takes vocals for Freddie King’s reflective “I Wonder Why”. Relentless electric blues-rock with notes cascading down in torrents can make for hit and miss, often sterile, records; but it works notoriously well in front of a real audience and the thrill transfers to CD pretty effectively here. Recommended particularly for admirers of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Fresh Blood Live New Life captures heavy trio Jay Gordon and the Penetrators at the Screaming Chicken roadhouse in San Bernadino, where they performed as part of a local Bike Rally in April of last year. Jay himself shreds like a good en and shares vocals with recently instated bassist Sharon Butcher (splendidly disrespectful on Runaway), while Mike Elliot pitches in on skins. Some might quibble with the blues authenticity of an outfit that cranks it up quite as high as these on songs belonging to the likes of Grand Funk Railroad (“Heartbreaker”), the Rolling Stones (“Honky Tonk Women”), and Jefferson Airplane (“White Rabbit”), but on their own merits these eight tracks stand as spirited crowd-pleasing performances and we can only assume from the voluminous applause that the assembled Bikers were (mercifully) well satisfied. Neil B. http://topcatrecords.com www.music-avenue.net www.myspace.com/jaygordonsixstringshooter Next