Search - Fleetwood Mac :: Blues Jam in Chicago V.2

Mmm...blues!

Docendo Discimus | Vita scholae | 02/26/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Fleetwood Mac get it right all the way on this excellent second volume of recordings from January 4th, 1969.

Backed by men like Otis Spann (piano), Willie Dixon (bass), and Big Walter Horton (harmonica), they lay down a terrific set of covers and a few originals, including the appropriately titled "Rockin' Boogie", a shorching, up-tempo romp propelled by three guitars and the braying sax of "Broomdusters" saxist J.T. Brown.



Guitarist Danny Kirwan's voice lacks some power and character, and that detracts a little bit from "Talk With You" and "Like It This Way", and the Jimmy Rogers-cover "World's In A Tangle" in particular. But it's not half bad at all, and if you want you can just close your eyes and listen to Otis Spann's piano, and everything'll be alright...!

Spann himself take a couple of lead vocals as well, by the way, and J.T. Brown plays and sings his own "Black Jack Blues". He also contributes to a great reading of Memphis Slim's "Nobody Loves Me (Every Day I Have The Blues)", sung by Mac's best vocalist, slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer. And David "Honeyboy" Edwards plays gritty slide guitar and sings with power and conviction on a terrific, bare-bones rendition of "My Baby's Gone", which also features Willie Dixon. Pure Delta blues there.



Peter Green takes over on John Lee 'Sonny Boy' Williamson's "Sugar Mama", laying down a very convincing vocal performance and playing some sizzling, hard-edged lead guitar, and Clark Perkins' "Homework" swings and swaggers in the capable hands of Green, Spann and Kirwan.

Big Walter Horton and Honeyboy Edwards own the instrumental "Honeyboy Blues", and this version of "Horton's Boogie Woogie" (there was one on vol. 1 as well) is spiced up even more by the presence of Otis Spann, who also sits in on three numbers sung by Walter Horton, his own "Have A Good Time" and "That's Wrong", and Lil' Son Jackson's "Rock Me". Mmm...! Horton and Spann...!

"I ain't doin' this for the record, I'm just doin' this for myself", says Big Walter Horton into the metallic-sounding harp mike at the start of the warm but utterly disorganized "Rock Me", and, as the liner notes explain, a couple of Horton's performances were indeed left off the original LP release. But here they are, and it's nice to have them, or at least I think so.



Based on the overall quality of the material, I'd have to give "Blues Jam in Chicago vol. 1" a bit of an edge over this one. But there is a lot of great stuff to be found here, and fans of the original Fleetwood Mac (and of Peter Green in particular) will find an awful lot to groove on, as well as an excellent set of liner notes by Mike Vernon.

Highly recommended."

Solid if unspectacular

C. S. Junker | Burien, WA USA | 01/16/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is the original Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green, not the 70s band that featured Stevie Nicks. The original FM followed the same path as the Yardbirds and the Rolling Stones by covering blues standards and gradually making the transition to rock with original songs.



One of two volumes recorded at the legendary Chess Studios in Chicago, this teams the original FM musicians with the older generation of bluesmen, a popular idea at the time. As is often the case with these all-star matchups, the sessions don't produce anything spectacular, but the playing is solid blues throughout. A standout is Otis Rush's "Homework", which many years later became a staple for Peter Green's Splinter Group (which also started out doing blues covers).



It's not Fleetwood Mac at their best, nor does it feature the best of the "old pros," but I'd recommend this set to fans of Peter Green's incomparable guitar, and those who like Fleetwood Mac's take on the blues.



Again, if you're expecting Stevie Nicks, you'll be disappointed. This is a completely different style of music."