Walter Trout - The Blues Came Callin’ & Battle Scars

When Gregg Allman, David Bowie, and Warren Zevon each found out the end of their lives was near, each decided to make one final album [Southern Blood, Blackstar, and The Wind respectively].  There’s nothing quite like impending death to motivate one into doing excellent work.  So too it seemed for bluesman Walter Trout.  I had the opportunity to see Walter Trout open for Gregg Allman in Sacramento in 1998.  He was one of those opening acts that didn’t suck.  In fact, I liked what I heard but I hadn’t bought any of his work until recently.  A few years ago, I heard that he was in dire need of a liver transplant.  Hard living between 1974 [when he moved from New Jersey to LA in search of a music career] and 1987 [when Carlos Santana got through to him to clean up his act] had finally caught up with him.  In 2013 Hepatitis C began to take its toll on him and he was becoming progressively ill.  He recorded songs when he wasn’t touring until his illness prevented him from doing so.  He decided he would make one final musical statement before he was “called home”.  For Walter Trout, that album would be The Blues Came Callin’. 

Walter Trout addresses the elephant in the room immediately on the first track, Wastin’ Away.  He knows something isn’t quite right as his body is turning against him. He doesn’t recognize who he sees in the mirror, but he isn’t going away quietly.  His soloing is as I remember from that night in 1998 – scorching. The World is Goin' Crazy (And So Am I) is Walter addressing the issues of the day that drive him batshit crazy – “Don’t believe our leaders ‘cause all they do is lie”, poor people fighting rich men’s wars, people dying in the streets, etc.  But he lets slip that the crazy stuff going on in the world of 2013-2014 is enough to make him want to get high.  The Bottom of the River is a metaphor for drowning in a river current, but he’s fighting for life because he’s not ready to die yet.  Willie is Walter Trout’s take on managers in the music business.  It’s about the many times he’s been ripped off by many different people in the music business in the past.  The title track tells of how one gets gripped tightly by the music we call “the blues” and how “you’ll never be the man you used to be” once the blues gets its grip on you.  His former boss John Mayall takes a turn on Hammond B-3.  Born in the City talks of Trout’s preference for city life, that country life may be good for some but not for him.  Unlike the other songs, this one is a slow burner, but no less intense. On Hard Time, he compares one’s lover leaving you to doing hard time in solitary. He said “this solitary is all in your mind and in your heart; an invisible psychological cage.” The only cover here is The Whale Have Swallowed Me by J.B. Lenoir.  As one might surmise, it’s the Biblical story of Jonah.  This is heavy music without being morose.  If it was Walter Trout’s intention to go out in a blaze of glory, he’s doing a pretty good job so far.

Not all is doom and gloom on The Blues Came Callin’.  Take A Little Time is Walter Trout as Chuck Berry.  He said of all the songs he’s done in the Chuck Berry style, this one probably comes closest to having an authentic Chess Records feel.  This one smokes!  Trout includes two instrumentals.  The first is Mayall's Piano Boogie, with Mayall himself on the piano.  Tight Shoes is the other that’s done like Freddie King.  Trout shows his sense of humor here.  He explained the origin of the song’s title:

“The title comes from my father, Ed Trout, Sr.  When I was a kid, he took the family out to dinner at a very swanky restaurant in Atlantic City.  It was very quiet and somber in there.  As he got up to leave, he inadvertently cut loose with a massive, thunderous, earth-shaking fart.  The whole place stopped and looked at him in horror.  He just turned to the room, looked at everybody there, shrugged his shoulders and said, “Tight shoes.”  His humor and sense of confidence has left a lasting impression on me.”

The only bit of sentimentality on The Blues Came Callin’ is saved for his wife on the last song, an acoustic piece called Nobody Moves Me Like You Do. It is an honest, real expression of the love that he has for her without sounding maudlin. The music is intense from the beginning to end - it doesn’t let up. This album is nearly perfect.  It is focused, it is intense, and it is Walter Trout at the top of his game. If you didn’t know any better, you wouldn’t think this album was made by a dying man, and that it was meant as a sort of valedictory statement.  One could say that The Blues Came Callin' was Walter Trout's last great act of defiance. There is not a dull moment to be found here, and the playing of all concerned is spectacular.

The Blues Came Callin’ was originally thought to be Walter Trout’s last musical statement, but it didn’t quite work out that way.  Close to death’s door, but not quite ready to cross the threshold, Walter Trout got the liver transplant he needed on May 26, 2014.  He finally got to go home on September 2^nd.  He’d lost 120 pounds.  He told NPR that while he was been in physical therapy and speech therapy, he had to learn how to walk again, and how to talk again.  He spent hours every day learning how to play guitar again.  If anyone expected Walter Trout to follow-up The Blues Came Callin’ with a collection of shiny, happy songs, they were mistaken.  The follow-up is Battle Scars, and it is every bit as harrowing as The Blues Came Callin’.  Battle Scars picks up where The Blues Came Callin’ and continues the story of staring down death and recovering his health.  I think of The Blues Came Callin’ and Battle Scars as a single piece as they tell the same story.

Almost Gone starts the proceedings.  He knows something’s wrong, can feel his body shutting down and he knows he won’t last much longer. He sees what is coming.  Knowing what he knows, he wishes he could go back and have a do-over.  He compares himself to a broken toy. Omaha is where things begin to get very dark.  Omaha is where he received his new liver. He told to NPR that while he was waiting for his liver, he saw people on the waiting list who didn’t make it.  You can feel his angst of not knowing whether he’ll get his liver.  He debates with himself the merits of painkilling meds (“I need something for the pain, but I don’t wanna get strung out again”).  With Tomorrow Seems So Far Away, he continues what he started on Omaha.  He relays the uncertainty of waiting, minute by minute, for the call that “somebody gave all”, that an organ was available for him.  So we’ve got three ferocious blues rockers right out of the gate.  Please Take Me Home, a mostly acoustic ballad, slows things down.  Walter is sick of hospitals and just wants to go home to be with his wife.  Once we’ve caught our breath with Please Take Me Home, it’s back to the ferocity of what came before with Playin’ Hideaway.  This one has nothing to do with illness or recovery, but is a poison pen letter to some unknown female.  One is reminded of Like a Rolling Stone, only done ZZ Top-style.

Haunted By The Night gets back to the illness and recovery narrative. Walter captures what it’s like to be alone with your own thoughts, unable to sleep and plagued by your deepest fears.  Before Walter got sick, his record company had planned a big celebration of 25 years of him being a recording artist in his own right, rather than as part of someone else’s band.  There was going to be a complete re-issuing of his catalog on vinyl, the publishing of his autobiography, and a worldwide tour. His illness mooted that celebration, as Walter laments in My Ship Came In.  Fly Away had a peculiar inspiration.  Before he went into the hospital, he was lying in bed, feeling very sick when he says he was visited by spirits.  He said these spirits took him away for an out-of-body experience to “the other side”.  He said these spirits offered him the chance to go live there, but that meant he would die.  He told them ‘no’ because he wanted to see his kids grow up.  On Move On, Walter sings another piece about wanting to get away from the pain he endured.  In Cold, Cold Ground, Walter hears the angels singing, but he doesn’t like the sound.  He thinks he’s got much more to do, and he’s not ready to go.  The blues rarely provide a happy ending, but we listeners get that with Gonna Live Again.  He was just days away from death when he got the call he was afraid would never come and he received his liver transplant.  An acoustic song, he lists all the things he’s done that he isn’t proud of – lying, cheating, etc – but he’s been given a second chance.  He’s having a conversation with God and he asks why he’s gotten this second chance.  He says he has a chance to be a better man, and that means be a better husband, to be a better father, or be a better musician, but he also believes that now it’s up to him to be an advocate to get people to sign up to be an organ donor.  After Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead went through the same thing about 20 years ago, he dedicated himself to spreading the organ donation message at each show he played.  This is now Walter Trout’s mission as well.

If anyone tells you a white man can’t sing the blues, lay these two albums on them.  I can’t recommend these two albums highly enough.  They are great works.

Tony's Picks - BB King

Many tributes have been written about BB King since his passing on May 14^th.  I can’t possibly match the eloquent tributes to the man who came to symbolize the blues to audiences worldwide.  But I can talk about his records that I like the most.  Of all the time BB King recorded and played for live audiences, my favorite era of his music is bookended by two live albums – Live at the Regal (1965) and Live in Cook County Jail (1971).  Live at the Regal has been cited by many critics as BB’s best live album, and one of the best live albums by anybody.  It has the songs Sweet Little Angel, It’s My Own Fault, and How Blue Can You Get?, the same three songs recorded as a medley by a group called The Hourglass.  For those who know your music history, The Hourglass was a forerunner to the Allman Brothers Band.  At the time they were under contract to Liberty Records, who allowed them to record only songs picked by the record company.  The band didn’t like the material Liberty provided them.  They booked studio time and recorded their BB King Medley, the result of which can be found on the first Duane Allman anthology as well as the ABB’s box set Dreams.  It was an important milestone for what became the Allman Brothers Band, but I digress.  My point here is the influence BB King had on two white kids from Daytona Beach, Florida.  

Confessin’ the Blues (1966), Blues on Top of Blues (1968) and Lucille (1968) each have the same horn-laden, big-band blues sound.  It’s all good stuff, but the horns get in the way of hearing BB wail on Lucille.  That having been said, there is the title track to Lucille is a ten-minute guitar track that tells the story of what his guitar means to him, and how his guitar got its name.  When BB isn’t telling the story of his life, he lets Lucille “sing.” The only music Lucille likes to play is the blues.  The funny thing about Lucille is the cover.  From 1959 until his death, Lucille was a Gibson ES-355, but the guitar on the cover is a Gibson Les Paul.  But I quibble…the music contained therein is great.

Joel Selvin used to be the pop music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle.  Recently he published a story about “a night at the Fillmore changed B.B. King’s career forever.”  The night in question was in February 1967.  He had played the Fillmore West several times before this night, but when he stepped out on stage that evening he saw something he’d never seen before – a roomful of white hippies.  BB King had played to exclusively black audiences [older black audiences at that] until this show.  Selvin described BB’s career at that time as “in decline” because the music he played [the blues] was a reminder to black audiences of the bad times and of Jim Crow.  Soul music was now the sound of the black community.  But the hippies liked the blues, and they liked them hard.  They had taken to Albert King’s guitar-driven blues, and they liked what they heard from BB King as well.  The record company took notice of the “new” demographic to whom BB King appealed.

In 1969, BB’s record label pared him with producer Bill Szymczyk, who later went on to work with the likes of The James Gang, Joe Walsh, The Eagles and The Who.  The two did four albums together, the first of which was Live & Well (1969).  Half the album was recorded live with his road band [“Live”], the other half was recorded in the studio [“Well”].  For the studio cuts, Szymczyk brought in studio musicians like Hugh McCracken, Paul Harris and Al Kooper.  The horns are still there, but they aren’t as prominent as they were on the preceding three studio albums.  Lucille and BB’s voice are brought to the fore, and the white studio guys could actually play the blues.  The blues feel is there.  There was a harder edge to the music.  The highlight for me on Live & Well is the closer Why I Sing The Blues, which clocks in at 8:37.  Short songs from BB King are ok, but I like to hear him stretch out and play.

Completely Well (1969) was an all-studio record.  With the exception of Al Kooper, the same studio musicians that played on the “Well” side of Live & Well are also present on Completely Well.  Producer Szymczyk strikes the same balance between horns, Lucille and BB’s voice on the first side of Completely Well as he did on Live & Well.  The other side of the LP is another story.  On this side, BB gets to cut loose on Lucille like I’ve never heard him before.  BB and company revisit a couple of songs BB recorded in the 1950s – Confessin’ the Blues and Cryin’ Won’t Help You Now.  These newer versions are more loose, and they sound more raw and angry.  Cryin’ Won’t Help You Now turns into a studio jam and clocks in at over twice the length of the original (6:27).  BB and the other musicians weren’t ready to quit, so the jam continued on You’re Mean for an additional ten minutes.  At the end of the jam you can hear BB say “damn, whatcha y’all tryin’ to do, kill me?”  This was a blues-meets-rock aesthetic to which BB King was more than able to tackle.  The last song is The Thrill Is Gone.  This is the song that will be forever connected with BB King, even though he didn’t write it.  The song was written by blues musician Roy Hawkins in 1951, and it was a hit for him that same year.  Bill Szymczyk got BB to record it.  When BB first heard the result, he wasn’t too sure if he liked it.  Then Szymczyk recorded that magnificent string arrangement and put it on the record.  BB liked it after that – a classic was born.  The string arrangement for The Thrill Is Gone was a first for BB King.  The song is BB King’s biggest hit, and also served as a blueprint for the follow-up album to Completely Well.

Indianola Mississippi Seeds (1970) was that follow-up.  It’s the one with the watermelon that’s made to look like a guitar.  The music contained therein sounds like The Thrill Is Gone.  For this album, producer Szymczyk dispensed with the horns all together and added string arrangements to most of the songs.  The results are very good.  The strings are present without getting in the way of the musicians.  Live & Well and Completely Well were recorded in New York.  Indianola Mississippi Seeds was recorded in Los Angeles, and with a change of scenery came a change of studio musicians.  Szymczyk used a different crew of studio musicians, including Joe Walsh on rhythm guitar, Leon Russell and Carole King (yes, that Carole King, the great songwriter who produced Tapestry the following year.).  With Carole King on electric piano (and the ever-present strings), the true follow-up to The Thrill Is Gone single is a song called Chains & Things.  Both songs are minor-chord blues and sound similar in their arrangements, but they’re different enough from one another to dismiss any notion that Chains & Things is simply a Thrill Is Gone knock-off.  Chains & Things stands on its own merits.  Leon Russell contributed his own Hummingbird to the proceedings, and did his own string and “angelic choir” arrangements for the songs.  Merry Clayton and Clydie King were part of the angelic chorus that closes out the song and the album.

As good as Live at the Regal is [and it’s very, very good], I actually prefer Live at Cook County Jail.  The music contained therein is as good as its Regal predecessor.  The blues is what Keith Richards call “adult music.”  Given this description, the screaming girls that reminds one of Beatlemania somewhat detract from the Regal show.  Both BB and Lucille are in fine voice.  There is one drawback to Cook County Jail – BB talks too much.  Maybe the captive audience didn’t want to interact with BB, hence the excess chatter from BB.  With all the time spent talking to the inmates, two or three more songs could have been squeezed out of this show.  The live version of The Thrill Is Gone makes up for it.  This isn’t Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison, but then again the music doesn’t lend itself to that kind of rowdiness.

Confessin’ the Blues, Blues on Top of Blues and Lucille are nice to have.  They’re nice, and they’re polite.  But for my money Live & Well, Completely Well, Indianola Mississippi Seeds, Live in Cook County Jail and Live at the Regal are essential BB King listening.

RIP BB King.

Johnny Winter - Roots/Step Back

In 2004, Johnny Winter released an album [at that time his first in 12 years] called I’m a Bluesman.  It was a good record, but not a great one.  Some complained [rightly so] that his vocals had lost their ferocity, as had his playing.  There is a reason for this.  Johnny’s former manager, Teddy Slatus, kept him secluded, and kept him on methadone [for 30 years!] and anti-depression meds.  Slatus even kept his brother Edgar away from Johnny.  But Johnny Winter had a secret weapon.  His name is Paul Nelson.  Already the second guitarist in Johnny’s road band, he asked Nelson if he would be his manager.  He did so after Johnny fired Slatus, and Nelson began to make some changes.  He allowed people to communicate with Johnny Winter, who also credited Nelson to getting him kick all the drugs, all the booze, and even quit smoking.  He once said “I never thought I would see the day that I didn’t have any vices at all.”  Once all those vices were gone, the voice got stronger, and the playing got stronger.

Once he was well enough to record, the plan was simple.  When JW asked Nelson what he should put down, Nelson suggested that JW record songs that inspired him.  JW liked the idea, and the concept of Roots was born.  Not only would they record one “roots” album, the two men planned on recording four of them.  Not only did they record blues songs, but also old rock and roll songs from the 1950s.  The plan was also to have other artists [most of whom had worked with JW before] make guest appearances.  Other older stars have made duet records before [Frank Sinatra and BB King immediately come to mind], but these “duet” records would have a twist.  The “duets” would not be with vocals [with two exceptions] – they would be with the instruments.  There are plenty of guitarists on these albums.  After hearing I’m a Bluesman, I was worried that any and/or all the guests would upstage Johnny.  I need not have worried.  Johnny Winter’s recovery from his addictions took hold, and he went toe-to-toe with his guests with ease. 

In 2014 Johnny Winter followed Roots with Step Back.  The plan for Step Back was the same as Roots.  I think of both albums as part of the same work, hence this blog about both of them.  When asked earlier in 2014 what was left for Johnny Winter to accomplish, he responded that he sure would like to win a Grammy®.  Last month, Step Back won the Grammy® for Best Blues Album of 2014.  Too bad Johnny Winter didn’t live to see it happen.

Roots [2011]

T-Bone Shuffle

Further On Up The Road

Done Somebody Wrong

Got My Mojo Working

Last Night

Maybellene

Bright Lights, Big City

Honky Tonk

Dust My Broom

Short Fat Fannie

Come Back Baby

Step Back [2014]

Unchain My Heart

Can’t Hold Out [Talk To Me Baby]

Don’t Want No Woman

Killing Floor

Who Do You Love

Okie Dokey Stomp

Sweet Sixteen

Where Can You Be

Death Letter

My Babe

Long Tall Sally

Mojo Hand

Blue Monday

The home runs:

Dust My Broom – words escape me on how good this one is.  Johnny Winter and Derek Trucks duel on the slide.  Too bad Derek doesn’t play like this on his own albums.

Death Letter – This is the only acoustic slide song between the two collections.  JW was always great at this sort of thing.  What a shame he never recorded an entire album of this stuff.

Don’t Want No Woman – Johnny Winter sure loved Elmore James.  Him and Eric Clapton together – what could go wrong?

Can’t Hold Out [Talk To Me Baby] – Ben Harper sings and plays his lap steel.

Met Expectations:

T-Bone Shuffle

Done Somebody Wrong

Sweet Sixteen

Where Can You Be

My Babe

Further On Up the Road

Short Fat Fannie

Muddy and The Wolf:  No album of blues covers is complete without at least a nod to Muddy Waters and/or Howlin’ Wolf.  Johnny Winter just happened to do my favorites from Muddy and the Wolf – Got My Mojo Workin’ and Killing Floor.  Very nice!

Instrumentals:  There are two of them, both from Clarence Gatemouth Brown:  Okie Dokie Stomp and Honky Tonk.  Both are very good.

The Pleasant Surprises:

Come Back Baby – I heard Clapton do this on his From the Cradle collection.  I liked that one a lot.  This one is better.

Mojo Hand – Joe Perry was pretty good here.  If he ever decides to stop playing chick music with Aerosmith, he could have a future in the blues.  Too bad he can’t sing…

Picks from Left Field:

Unchain My Heart – Johnny Winter takes a turn at an old Ray Charles song.  The result isn’t bad, it’s just mind-blowing.

Maybelline – Not only did I not expect Johnny Winter to do another Chuck Berry song in his career, I really didn’t expect Vince Gill to come along for the ride.  This is most excellent.

Blue Monday – Johnny Winter sings Fats Domino!  I didn’t see that one coming…

Songs I can do without: 

Bright Lights, Big City – There must be some clause in every contract that Derek Trucks signs that says “if you work with me, you have to work with my wife.”  In the blues community, Susan Tedeschi is becoming almost as ubiquitous as Sheryl Crow is in the rock/pop world.  That is not a compliment.   I’m still not a member of The Church of Susan.

Last Night – If you have heard one John Popper harmonica solo, you have heard them all.  He ruins an otherwise fine take on this Little Walter gem with his overplaying.

Long Tall Sally – The only person on the planet who should be allowed to sing Little Richard songs [besides the man himself] is Paul McCartney.  Vocally, Johnny Winter is no Paul McCartney.

Both Roots and Step Back are worthy additions to any Johnny Winter collections.  They make a fitting epitaph for a Texas bluesman who is sorely missed.

John Hammond - Wicked Grin

When is a Tom Waits album not a Tom Waits album?  Wicked Grin is John Hammond’s 28^th album.  For practically his entire career, John Hammond has been an interpreter of songs of blues musicians.  Wicked Grin is another such album in Hammond’s large canon, only with a twist.  It’s full of songs by Tom Waits, produced by Tom Waits, recorded in Tom Waits’ favorite studio with some of Tom Waits’ usual musical suspects [Waits' occasional bassist Larry Taylor, drummer Stephen Hodges, keyboardist Augie Meyers, Charlie Musselwhite on harmonica].  The only song not written by Waits is I Know I’ve Been Changed.  There are two songs that had not been released by Tom Waits at the time Wicked Grin was recorded – 2:19 and Fannin Street [both were later released by the man himself in 2006].  Buzz Fledderjohn was a Japanese bonus track for Mule Variations.

As mentioned, John Hammond has made a career interpreting the blues of the old masters, so why Tom Waits?  I say “why not?”  The two men have friends for a long time.  Waits once opened for Hammond over forty years ago, an experience that Hammond once said made him very hesitant to follow Waits on-stage.  Of Waits’ songs, Hammond once said “I include a song of his or two just about every night. I love these songs. They nail it and they have a blues base… all the feeling, and Tom’s take on life  Waits provided a song for Hammond’s 1992 album Got Love If You Want It [the song is No One Can Forgive Me But My Baby if you’re looking].  Hammond returned the favor by playing on Waits’ 1999 album Mule Variations.

Wicked Grin has a dreamlike, swampy blues feeling to it.  For the most part Hammond stays away from Waits’ latter day work for Anti- Records and concentrates on the older stuff from the Asylum and Island days.  The songs from those days were more bluesy, boozy, and a bit more seedy.  What came out was a sparse, more modern sounding Tom Waits record with a singer you can actually understand.  That being said, these tales of urban realism, wild characters and street-smart scenes are in good hands with John Hammond.  Some of the arrangements are similar to [but not exactly like] the originals.  Others [the ones I prefer] are radically different.  Either way, this is good stuff.

The tracklist:

2:19 [Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards]

Heartattack and Vine [Heartattack and Vine]

Clap Hands [Rain Dogs]

‘Til the Money Runs Out [Heartattack and Vine]

16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six [Swordfishtrombones]

Buzz Fledderjohn [Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards]

Get Behind the Mule [Mule Variations]

Shore Leave [Swordfishtrombones]

Fannin Street [Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards]

Jockey Full of Bourbon [Rain Dogs]

Big Black Mariah [Rain Dogs]

Murder in the Red Barn [Bone Machine]

I Know I’ve Been Changed [Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards]

Tony’s picks from Wicked Grin:  Shore Leave, Buzz Fledderjohn, ‘Til the Money Runs Out, 16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six.  The arrangements on the first three songs are radically different than the originals.  I like the originals, but these arrangements just add to the charm.  16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six is similar to the original, but to these ears John Hammond does it better. 

Bonus fries:  If you like Wicked Grin but can’t get enough of him singing songs by Tom Waits, there are more songs on subsequent albums.  On 2003’s Ready for Love [produced by Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo], you’ll find Low Side of the Road [from 1999’s Mule Variations] and Gin Soaked Boy [from Swordfishtrombones].  On 2007’s Push Comes to Shove [produced by G. Love] you’ll find Cold Water [also from Mule Variations].

Bottom line:  If you like Tom Waits’ songs but not his voice, or if you just want to hear the songs you like done a different way, this is a very good purchase.  The albums from which the “bonus fries” come from are also worthy of parting with your money.  Ready for Love and Push Comes to Shove have similar production to Wicked Grin, so get all three for a nice trilogy.

The Allman Brothers Band - The Final Show

Back in January of this year, both Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks announced they would be leaving the Allman Brothers Band at the end of 2014.  Shortly thereafter I asked the musical question – was it the “end of the line” for the Allman Brothers?  This lineup has been together since 2001 – the longest-lasting lineup for this storied band.  I thought then as I do now that the daunting task of finding not one but two new guitarists would be too much to overcome.  Apparently Gregg Allman came to the same conclusion as he announced the band would stop touring after 2014.  Since the band no longer records [their last studio album Hittin’ the Note came out in 2003], no more touring meant it was the “end of the line” indeed.

The band scheduled their usual March Madness at the Beacon Theatre in New York.  They were scheduled to play 14 shows, but they managed to play only 10 of them because Gregg Allman came down with bronchitis and couldn’t sing. The band played two of those 10 shows without Gregg, but then they postponed the remaining four shows until a later date.  Gregg has his own Gregg Allman & Friends band, Derek Trucks records and tours regularly with the Tedeschi Trucks Band, and Warren Haynes has Gov’t Mule.  Given the busy schedules of the individual band members, the “later dates” came in October.  In addition to the four make-up dates, the band tacked on two more shows.  The final date – October 28th.

I belong to the official Allman Brothers web forum, Hittin’ the Web with The Allman Brothers Band.  As soon as the dates for the final shows were announced, much speculation about who would be there commenced.  The biggest topic was Dickey Betts.  Would he or wouldn’t he be there?  Would there be any other guests like Beacon runs of the past?  The answer to both questions turned out to be “no.”  The band decided they would do this run themselves.  However, according to Gregg Allman, they reached out to Dickey, but he was “on a hunting trip.”  Derek Trucks confirmed the band tried to get Dickey, but Dickey’s manager called “bullshit.”  So who to believe?  It doesn’t matter – Dickey didn’t show.  There were three musical “guests” – they just weren’t people.  Three of Duane Allman’s guitars, two of which are owned by daughter Galadrielle, were in the house.  Warren and Derek played them during the run.  The next subject of speculation was “the final song.”  What would it be?  Opinions varied between Whipping Post, One Way Out, No One To Run With, and Little Martha.  I thought it might be Little Martha – the only song Duane Allman wrote.  But in the end, the band had a surprise – more on that later.  A theme emerged during the final six shows – Will the Circle Be Unbroken.  The old gospel hymn that was sung at Duane Allman’s funeral crept into the set lists one way or another.  On one night it might be just an instrumental tease, other nights Gregg and Warren would sing a verse or two.  But every night, that theme was there.

A couple of days ago I received my copy of the final show from Hittin’ the Note.  Most of the shows that I bought were 3 CDs, some are only 2.  This show has 4.  When the original six members were all in their twenties, the length of their shows became legend.  When they closed the Fillmore East in July 1971, they went on-stage at 2am and came off-stage at 6am.  Butch Trucks often tells the story about that show.  When they finished the show you could hear a pin drop.  No applause, just all smiles.  And then the doors opened, the first rays of the new morning sun came in, and this New York crowd quietly walked out.  Butch quotes Duane as saying “God damn!  It’s like leaving church!”   This final show wasn’t like that.  The band was “hittin’ the note,” and the crowd was amped up.  They played three sets instead of their usual two.  It’s become cliché that whenever a sports team plays the game of their lives, it’s referred to as “leaving it on the field.”  In the musical context, sometimes the Allman Brothers Band “left it on the stage,” and sometimes they didn’t.  That’s not to say that the shows where they didn’t leave it all there were bad.  On the contrary – they’re just old and can’t do it like they used to night after night four decades ago.  But having listened to this show, I can honestly say these old guys lived up to their legend.  So enough of the qualitative, here’s the Joe Friday “just-the-facts” scorecard:

The final setlist:

Set One:
Little Martha >
Mountain Jam >
Don't Want You No More >
It's Not My Cross to Bear >
One Way Out
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Midnight Rider
High Cost of Low Living
Hot’Lanta
Blue Sky
You Don't Love Me

Set Two:
Statesboro Blues
Ain't Wastin’ Time No More
Black Hearted Woman
The Sky is Crying
Dreams
Don't Keep Me Wonderin'
In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed

Set Three:
Melissa
Revival
Southbound
Mountain Jam >
Will The Circle Be Unbroken? >
Mountain Jam

Encore:
Whipping Post
Trouble No More

After the thunder and frenzy that was Whipping Post, the band all gathered center stage and Gregg, usually a man of few words began to speak:

“A few years ago, just a few years ago, I was called to come and meet these guys in Jacksonville, Florida.  And it was kinda like, a little stiff in the room until one of them handed me a lyric sheet and said “Sing!”  And this was about 3:30 in the afternoon in Jacksonville, Florida, March 26^th, 1969.  Never did we have any idea that it would come to this.  We give you a heartfelt ‘thank you.’  And now we’re gonna end on the first song we ever played, that broke the ice.” 

Given that Gregg didn’t know any of his future bandmates except for his brother when he walked into that first rehearsal, I have no doubt that the “one of them” who said “Sing!” was Duane.  With all of the stories I’ve heard and read about Duane, that way of saying hello would be totally in-character for him.  Oh, to have been a fly on the wall the day a new music genre was invented…

Usually the talkative one who tells the same stories over and over again, Butch Trucks simply echoed what Gregg said.  The band would bookend the Allman Brothers Band with the first song they ever played.

Jaimoe, who usually says fewer words than Gregg [if you can believe such a thing is possible], said this:  “Hello hello, thank you!  Thank you so much.  We couldn’t have done it without you.  Two things I always wanted to do in my life – I wanted to be Mr. America and I wanted to be the world’s greatest jazz drummer.  Well, I gave up on Mr. America, and on my way to New York City I went to Alabama to meet Duane Allman.  And then I was a jazz drummer, that’s when I discovered what that was all about.  So thank God for Duane Allman and all these fellas, and thank God for you!”

The band picked up their instruments and played one final song, which indeed was the first song they ever played as a band – Muddy Waters’ Trouble No More.  Five hours after they took the stage, at 1:30 AM on October 29^th, the 43^rd anniversary of Duane Allman’s passing, the band came off stage for the final time.  The circle was and is unbroken.

Joe Bonamassa - Beacon Theatre & Vienna Opera House

Joe Bonamassa is trying to displace Warren Haynes as the hardest working man in the music business.   He’s done two duet albums with Beth Hart, three studio albums and one live with Black Country Communion [now defunct], and he recorded guitar parts for Jon Lord’s Concerto for Group and Orchestra.  He puts out a studio album under his own name almost every year [10 between 2000-2012], and he tours constantly [documented by 4 live albums].  In the space of 6 months [September 2012-March 2013] he’s released two more live albums.  The first was recorded at New York’s famed Beacon Theatre on November 5^th, 2011 [Beacon Theatre: Live from New York].  It was an electric show like what he usually presents.  The second album is a different kettle of fish.  An Acoustic Evening at the Vienna Opera House was recorded July 3^rd, 2012.  As the name implies, it’s a totally acoustic show, something he hadn’t done before.  First, a look at the electric set from the Beacon.

Interesting song choices.  There are reverential tributes to two Irish blues rock legends – Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore.  Joe does more than justice to Rory’s Cradle Rock and Gary Moore’s Midnight Blues.  Somewhere those two Irish guitar giants are smiling… J He covers Leonard Cohen’s Bird on a Wire [?!?].  He pulled out his own rarely-played Blue and Evil from his Black Rock album.  At the end of the show he launches into Young Man Blues.  A valiant attempt, but The Who owns this song – they always have, they always will.  Other than the tunes I just mentioned he stuck with songs from Dust Bowl and Black Rock, with a couple of exceptions.

The guests.  Joe has three guests, the first of whom is Beth Hart.  Beth and Joe did two songs from their first album together, Don’t Explain.  Her performance of I’ll Take Care of You is smoldering.  But her take on Lowell Fulson’s Sinner’s Prayer is simply jaw-dropping.  This is simply the best version I’ve heard by anybody.  She’s sassy, brassy, ballsy, and bluesy.  Susan Tedeschi, call your office!  This is how women sing the blues!  Next comes John Hiatt, who performs two of his songs [Down Around My Place and I Know a Place].  Paul Rodgers is saved for last.  He and Joe’s band take a trip back to the Seventies and perform two songs from Free [Walk In My Shadows and Fire and Water].  Joe channels his inner Paul Kossoff very well, especially on Fire and Water.  Paul Rodgers performs as expected – perfectly.  It’s all good with all three guests.

The setlist:

72^nd St. Subway Blues

Slow Train [Dust Bowl]

Cradle Rock [A New Day Yesterday]

When the Fire Hits the Sea [Black Rock]

Midnight Blues [G. Moore]

Dust Bowl [Dust Bowl]

The River [Had To Cry Today]

I’ll Take Care of You [Don’t Explain]

Sinner’s Prayer [Don’t Explain]

You Better Watch Yourself [Dust Bowl]

Steal Your Heart Away [Black Rock]

Bird on a Wire [L. Cohen – Black Rock]

Down Around My Place [J. Hiatt]

I Know a Place [J. Hiatt – Black Rock]

Blue and Evil [Black Rock]

Walk in My Shadows [P. Rodgers – Free]

Fire and Water [P. Rodgers – Free]

Mountain Time [So, It’s Like That]

Young Man Blues

If Heartaches Were Nickels [A New Day Yesterday]

The band:

Joe Bonamassa: Guitar/vocals

Carmine Rojas: Bass

Rick Melick: Keyboards

Tal Bergman: Percussion

Tony’s take:  Joe Bonamassa’s singing is not his strong point [it’s solid but not great], but he more than makes up for it with his electric six-string work, which is incendiary.  Make no mistake – the dude can wail on guitar, and if his vocals are passable that’s good enough for me.  He doesn’t write many original songs himself, but I like his choice in other peoples’ material.  This live offering is a little better than his Live from the Royal Albert Hall release [2009], and that one was pretty damn good.  Buy it!

Favorites:  Sinner’s Prayer, Cradle Rock, Midnight Blues, Fire and Water, Blue and Evil

An Acoustic Evening at the Vienna Opera House.  He’s played at the Royal Albert Hall, New York’s Beacon Theatre, and now Vienna’s Opera House.  The likes of Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms presented some of their works here, so this is a prestigious music venue.  Who would think an American would play the blues here?

As Joe told an on-line publication:  “Originally, when I had the idea of doing an all-acoustic concert, I imagined doing it solo. I’d surround myself with a bunch of guitars, tell the background story of each song, and then play it. Kevin believed the show would be more exciting with a band and he got to work. All of a sudden, we had a five-piece group, and 72 hours to rehearse 20 or so songs. It was amazing, different than anything I’d ever done before.”  Instead of his regular electric band, producer Kevin Shirley assembled an acoustic band of all-stars to include Gerry O'Connor, on Irish banjo and fiddle; Mats Wester, on nyckelharpa and mandola; Arlan Schierbaum, on harmonium, accordion, baby piano and glockenspiel; and Lenny Castro, on percussion.  What the hell is a nyckelharpa [aka “key fiddle”]?  It’s a traditional Swedish stringed instrument that’s a cross-between a violin and a hurdy gurdy [see picture].  Instead of having a fingerboard like a violin, it has keys to press while bowing with the other hand.

Song choices:  Some of the songs presented here were originally recorded on acoustic guitars.  Others were originally don’t with electrics, so Joe had to take the same approach as Eric Clapton did on his Unplugged album.  Fortunately none of the electric songs were castrated like Clapton did with Layla.  Instead of loud guitars and drums we hear folky violins, banjos, mandolas, and different kinds of percussion that add to rather than subtract from the performances.

The setlist:

Arrival
Palm Trees, Helicopters and Gasoline [You & Me]
Jelly Roll [Sloe Gin]
Dust Bowl [Dust Bowl]
Around The Bend [Sloe Gin]
Slow Train [Dust Bowl]
Athens To Athens [Black Rock]
From The Valley [The Ballad of John Henry]
The Ballad of John Henry [The Ballad of John Henry]
Dislocated Boy [Driving Towards the Daylight]
Driving Towards the Daylight [Driving Towards the Daylight]
High Water Everywhere [You & Me]
Jockey Full of Bourbon [The Ballad of John Henry]
Richmond [Sloe Gin]
Stones In My Passway [Driving Towards the Daylight]
Ball Peen Hammer [Sloe Gin]
Black Lung Heartache [Dust Bowl]
Mountain Time [So, It’s Like That]
Woke Up Dreaming [Blues Deluxe]
Sloe Gin [Sloe Gin]
Seagull [Sloe Gin]

Tony’s take:  In the movie Amadeus, the Austrian emperor was asked to critique Mozart’s music.  His reply – “too many notes.”  On some [not all] of the acoustic songs presented here, Joe has the same problem as Mozart.  He’s naturally an electric guitar player, so playing with blazing speed is something that comes naturally to him.  That approach isn’t always appropriate for the acoustic guitar.  Can you picture Muddy Waters or Howlin’ Wolf playing acoustic guitars at Warp Factor Eight?  Me neither.  Acoustic blues is supposed to be slow [IMHO anyway…]. The songs where he does ease off the gas and takes it slow are outstanding.  That having been said, the songs with the different acoustic instruments from all over Europe have a more colorful, more exotic character that makes for great listening.  The recording is flawless. Bottom line:  buy it!

Favorites:  Dust Bowl, Slow Train, Black Lung Heartache, Ball Peen Hammer