The Bottom of the Barrel
K DEREK E GRAY | NASHUA, NH United States | 07/16/2002
(2 out of 5 stars)
"I have all of Junior Kimbrough's CD's, and think each one is a five star recording--EXCEPT this one. Fat Possum has a bad habit of releasing anything they have in their vaults, particularly if the artist has died (witness the awful--and accurate--reviews of Asie Payton's final album "Worried".) "Meet Me In The City" is a CD of cuts recorded at home, live at blues festivals--[heck], even in the shower, it sounds like. The quality of the recordings is [poor], and a couple of the songs you've heard before if you own all the Kimbrough Fat Possum releases ("Done Got Old" and "All Night Long," for instance.) For all that, you can easily hear the great bluesman Kimbrough was underneath the fuzzy background noise, sloppy editing & repetition. For collectors and purists only."
Meet Him or Deprive Yourself
BluesDuke | Las Vegas, Nevada | 05/09/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Junior Kimbrough was a far cry from the rock and roll-aspiring, showboating poseurs passing themselves off as bluesmen these days. No bluesman since Muddy Waters took such a sure sense of the Delta soil from which roots the blues were born and drop-kicked it this acutely into his own time and place. This "prequel" to his Fat Possum recording career is about as raw as the primal blues gets and then some. The four homemade solo recordings which lead the album off are worth the price alone - maybe this isn't the most professional recording you'll ever hear, but if you think anyone else's blues stables will come within five nautical miles of this nudity of feeling - never mind to the most inspired deployment of electric guitar feedback the blues has ever known (imagine Charlie Patton beating the Velvet Underground at their own game) - you're dreaming even deeper than they are. The live cuts with Kimbrough's trio? For him they're about the going rate - but for anyone else, it's rotsa ruck trying, and they'd be damn fools not to."
Well Okay, this may not be his best work .
N. Langston | Sarasota, Florida United States | 07/07/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Even though this album has been given some terrible reviews It still diserves at least 4 stars. If you have never heard Junior before than this Cd is probably not for you. But, if you are a hard-core Jonior fan than this will make an interesting adition to you collection. Okay, with the exeption of the title track the audio quality is terrible. But, I listen to guys like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Son House and Charly Patton so much that this doesn't bother me. Plus, if you hate the first 4 tracks, the live tracks will more than make-up for that. In the last four tracks have a lot of screaming fans and guitar feed back. On the last track you can hear Junior thanking his fans and unplugging his guitar. Plus it even has a small clip of Stevie Ray Vaunghn at the end. This May sound silly but if you close you Eyes and use your imagination, it is almost like you are at the concert."