Live Blues! Breakin’ it Up, Breakin’ it Down!
To me, the best way to get an idea of what a blues musicians is about is to hear them perform live. Sadly, due to the death or poor health of many blues legends this isn’t always possible. We are lucky however, to have many wonderful live recordings from this blues masters available to us on records, CD’s, and MP3′s. Here are some of my favorite Live Blues recordings…
MUDDY WATERS, JAMES COTTON and JOHNNY WINTER “BREAKIN’ IT UP, BREAKIN’ IT DOWN”
There are a number of great live albums that showcase the strength of Muddy Waters’ many different bands over the years. However, none of these albums cook like 2007′s Breakin’ It Up, Breakin’ It Down. Originally recorded in March of 1977, Breakin’ It Up, Breakin’ It Down features Muddy himself joined by blues legends Johnny Winter, James Cotton, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Pinetop Perkins, and Bob Margolin. The band is firing on all cylinders, performing songs from Muddy’s recently released album Hard Again as well as a hand full of blues classics. We are lucky to be able to experience this classic performance, for the music on this album was almost thrown away when the record label that originally owned this recording went out of business!
B.B. KING “LIVE AT SAN QUENTIN”
The most famous live recording from blues legend B.B. King has to be his 1965 album Live at The Regal. While Live at the Regal is a fantastic recording, my personal favorite B.B. King live release is B.B. King Live At San Quentin. Recorded at San Quentin prison in 1990, Live At San Quentin shows off the true power of Mr. King’s touring band. The band keeps pace with Mr. King through a greatest hits set list and is able to stop on a dime when their leader decides it is time to address the audience. This leads me to another strong point of the album. Mr. King’s warm personality. Listening to this record, you get a great sense of what wonderful performer B.B. King is! It almost sounds like his is preaching to a church congregation then a group of prisoners. For those of you who aren’t able to see Mr. King live (he still performs about 230 shows a year) this recording will give you a great idea of how much fun a B.B. King concert can be.
John Lee Hooker “Live At Cafe’ A Go-Go/Live at Soledad Prison”
Boogie master John Lee Hooker never sounded better then he did on the albums Live At Cafe’ A Go-Go and Live At Soledad Prison. Both shows have been remastered and put on one CD. For Hooker’s 1966 performance at New York’s legendary Cafe’ A G0-Go his backing band is none other then the Muddy Waters Blues Band! Mr. Hooker is in fine form as he the band tear through powerful versions of “I’ll Never Get Out Of These Blues Alive” and “I’m Bad Like Jesse James”. For the Soledad Prison show is also a very strong performance from Mr. Hooker and his band (his regular touring band at the time). The highlight of this performance has to be the rockin’ version of “Bang, Bang, Bang”, to which his captive audience (no pun intended) finds very amusing.
