Jeff Healey, As the Years Go Passing By, Three-CD Live Set

Jeff Healey, Canadian blues-rock guitar-vocal phenomenon, left this world in 2008, sadly. Cancer. But he lives yet. Especially with the welcome release of a three-CD set of him and his band live in Germany between 1989-2000. As the Years Go Passing By (Inakustik 9119 3-CD) captures Healey in excellent form, playing real-deal bluesy rock guitar, singing strongly, playing the mix of covers and originals he was known for, doing it well and doing it in full fidelity sound.

One CD of the original trio follows with a CD each of two versions of the trio with the addition of a second guitarist. So one disk is the 1989 incarnation, the second from 1999, the last from 2000.

It's the hard rock blues, the hard blues, the hard rock and it's as good a sampling of what Jeff Healey was about as you can get. And that is something. I will be listening for years to come. Rock guitarists take note! Or anybody else, too!

Elliott Sharp's Terraplane, Sky Road Songs

Terraplane is Elliott Sharp's blues-rock outfit. It goes way back but has been more active in recent years.

Their new one, Sky Road Songs (Yellowbird), makes an energetic foray deeper into the thicket of possibilities, with some soul-like numbers, some heavier than average blues rock, good guitar work from Elliott and a guest appearance by the late Hubert Sumlin who tragically left us not long ago.

There are very decent vocals by the likes of Tracie Morris and Eric Mingus, sometimes following a more-than-blues song format (soul/rock/out-rock) that should bring this record into the rock-soul radio airwaves orbit.

So it's more than just blues but like anything Elliott Sharp does it's ultra-solid music. And the bluesier old-meets-new kicks are a total post-Beefheartian blast.

For those around the New York City area this weekend, they will be playing a gig this Sunday (November 11th) at Joe's Pub, starting at 9:30 PM. Catch it for good sounds.

Studebaker John, Old School Rockin'

The hard kicking Studebaker John returns to Delmark Records for his follow-up album Old School Rockin' (Delmark 818). He is on fire on a series of 14 hard drivin', blues soaked rockers.

It's a trio of John on hard-edged vocals, blazing electric slide guitar and harp, plus bass and drums.

And yeah, he is pounding out some smokers that will appeal to old school electric blues-a-billy and roots rock fans everywhere.

His voice has a touch of the Captain and the Wolf in there when he reaches back for more, and it's just right to kick out the jams. The band is stomping. The originals do what they do with hip riffs and up-front beat.

My oh my and yes indeed!

Johnny Winter "Live at Rockpalast," 1979, Now Out in CD Version

I reviewed the DVD version of this several months ago (see earlier posting). so I'll just mention today that the CD version of Johnny Winter Live at Rockpalast (MVD 5185A) is now out. It sounds great, has most of what's on the DVD and gives you some very fine Johnny in a peak period. Enough said!

Lucas, Johnston & Fast 'N' Bulbous Do Beefheart

Gary Lucas, a guitarist's guitarist, whether adapting an unlikely tune to a Delta blues slide or in a full-tilt electric shred zone....Phillip Johnston, piquant alto saxist and another bold iconoclast, the founder of the acclaimed Microscopic Septet....Fast 'N' Bulbous, the band Gary and Phillip put together to do some new arrangements of the music of Captain Beefheart. This is a potent combo, not the least because Gary did an important stint in Beefheart's band, but also because Beefheart's considerable music lends itself to open-ended interpretations. And that's what you get. Freshly minted Beefheart, so to say.

The latest album, Waxed OOP (Cuneiform) is a lively, rocking, exciting blend of very hip Lucas, excellent mid-sized band arrangements and some gems of the Beefheart repertoire, and not just the well-known songs either.

Beefheart was and is a complex, multifaceted artist. He extended the blues into zones no one would have expected them to go, he was a prolifically bizarre wordsmith magician, and he wrote some amazing music for his various bands, stretching the envelop as to how a typical rock-blues aggregation (or not so typical, sometimes) could take on complex and unprecedented interactions. Listen to a little Trout Mask Replica, for example, and you'll hear guitars, bass and drums do things that nobody thought they were supposed to do back then. And we're not even beginning to talk about his vocals! That's for another time.

Waxed OOP gives you another look at Beefheart the composer, the forthright and worthy arrangements of Johnston and others, and some great Lucas guitar, unaccompanied here and there and in full-bloom in the ensemble.

"Well," originally a vocal solo, bursts into a flowering full-band sound. "Blabber'n' Smoke" reminds you how many great songs Beefheart could toss off almost casually in his peak years and how good they still sound, especially with some fresh arrangements. "Woe-is-uh-Me-Bop" is another gem, from the extraordinarily innovative album Lick My Decals Off Baby and it has new life in this rendition.

If you love Gary's playing, Johnston's concepts and arranging and/or Beefheart and his music, or you just wonder about any or all three, you cannot go wrong with Waxed OOP.

Early Fleetwood Mac Live

Originally posted on August 19, 2008

Fleetwood Mac. They are a household word (or, actually two words). Perhaps no band except the Stones has had such a long and varied history, from a heavily musically endowed blues band to rock titans.

There is a CD lurking around, cheap if you can find it, that documents the original band rather well. Fleetwood Mac Live—Early Recordings (MBH) does not list the personnel, date or location of the recording on the disk, and the sound quality is not first rate, but it shows off the early incarnation at their raw best. This is electric blues at the core, and what sounds like Peter Green is doing some great lead work. It is nice to hear and time has been kind to this lineup. Nothing sounds dated.