QUARTERNOTES
Reviews by Michael Buffalo Smith
Did somebody say they dig the blues? There’s one killer hybrid package (2 CD’s plus DVD) out from the late great Albert Collins and The Icebreakers, Live at Rockpalast (MIG). Recorded in Ger- many in 1980, the Ice- breakers, featuring legendary sax man A.C. Reed, open the show with a great medley of “Sweet Home Chicago” > “Dust My Broom” > ‘Yonders Wall” > “Goin’ Down” > “Sweet Home Chicago.” Of course, the songs have essentially the same structure, so they merge seemlessly, especially in the hands of such an apt group. The band “breaks the ice” and warms up the crowd with a few songs, including Reed’s own “She’s Fine,” before introducing the man of the hour, Albert Collins, one of the finest guitar players in the history of electric blues. I watched the DVD first and listened to the CD’s later. I guess I have become a more visual type of guy of late, but I just love to see tha band pounding it out, sweating buckets, an hittin’ the note. The long time Alligator Records mainstay gives it 110 percent, as he always did. Collins rips through a set of his own music, including classic Albert cuts like “Cold Cuts,” and “I Got a Mind to Travel,” and his covers would burn a hole through as- bestos- Johnny Morisette’s “Brick;” “Angel of Mercy” penned by Banks and Jackson; and more before pulling out a nearly 13- minute version of his own “Frosty,” leading into a
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killer instrumental jam to send the set. These are some blues you can use, fellow babies. Long live Albert Collins...I love me some Joe Louis Walker, and his latest record Every- body Wants a Piece (Provogue) continues forward with his tradition of belting out stel- lar blues vocals and smoking on the six- string. From the opening title track there is no doubt that this is gonna be one hell of an 11-track ride. Among the most outstanding tracks is “Buzz On You,” all about how a member of the fairer sex can intoxi- cate a man more than a quart of Jim Beam! The slow and soulful blues ooze out on “Black & Blue,” and two of my per- sonal favorite tracks are heard back to back, “Gospel Blues,” a very
nice jam is followed by a Walkerized version of the old gospel tune “Wade in the Water.” Classic. With Everybody Wants a Piece, Joe Louis Walker adds another firmly carved notch to the trunk of his career tree. Let there be blues! Amen!
...The Acoustic Blues & Roots of Duke Robillard (Stony Plain) finds Duke Robillard completing a project near and dear to his heart, one that he has been work- ing on for over ten years. It is a collection of favorite tunes written between the 1920’s and ‘40’s, with one exception- Robbie Robertson’s “Evangeline,” which sounds as though it was written somewhere within that 30-year span. As a whole, the album has a very laid-back vibe. Non obtrusive, easy to listen too while I am writing. I love that. From the classic Stephen Foster penned “My Old Kentucky Home” to “Jimmie’s Texas Blues” by Jimmie
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