Rating:
Genre:
Blues
Release Date: 09/03/2002
This CD is one of the most flukey and important live-blues documents you can find, rating right up there with
B.B. King's Live at the Regal and the live
Piano Red material from 1955. Recorded off the P.A. system at a 1961 show at the Sage Armory in Mobile, Alabama, it captures
Slim Harpo in his only live concert document.
Harpo's vocals are a little pushed back in the resulting recording, but his harmonica is caught really well (check out the playing and the clarity on the slow blues
"You Know I Love You"), as are the guitars of
Rudolph Richard and
James Johnson,
Willie "Tomcat" Parker's sax, and
Sammy K. Brown's drums. Luckily, there's not much audience noise, so what we get is a close-up look at how the blues legend sounded on stage, doing classics like "I'm a King Bee," "Got Love if You Wants It," "Rainin' in My Heart" (his then-current hit), and songs like "Big Boss Man" and "Boogie Chillun," made famous by others. If the sound were slightly better, this would rate even higher, but any real fan should own this. (Note: 11 of the 20 tracks have appeared previously in the United States, spread among two
Slim Harpo compilations devoted to his work).
~Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
;)
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