Track Listing

1. Real Life
2. Okie Dokie Stomp
3. Frankie and Johnny
4. Next Time You See Me
5. Take the "A" Train
6. Please Send Me Someone to Love
7. Catfish
8. St. Louis Blues
9. What a Shame, What a Shame

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #210546 in Music
• Released on: 1989-08-22
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Live

Amazon.com
This live set from Fort Worth, Texas, is that rarest of creatures: a live album with the sound quality and economy of a studio recording. Musically, as one would expect from Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, the nine tracks are all over the map, from the slow funk-blues of "Catfish" (with some scorching fiddle that suggests that Brown would do handily as the hero of a certain Charlie Daniels song), to a boogie take on W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues," to a smashing rendition of Duke Ellington's "Take the 'A' Train," which goes to show that Brown can do jazz just as well as he does blues--that is to say, very well indeed. There's also a very tender rendition of Percy Mayfield's "Please Send Me Someone to Love," and things wind up with Brown's very own "What a Shame, What a Shame." In fact, the only shortcoming of this album is that it's too short; Gatemouth's too varied and skilled a musician to be summed up in a mere nine tracks. Another few numbers would leave the listener completely satisfied. --Genevieve Williams

From Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD
Brown knows exactly what he likes, and his telling his musicians that -'We finally got us a thing going" during this 1985 Fort Worth performance is not to be taken lightly. The bandleader dips and thrusts his jazzy, disciplined guitar phrases through everything from Duke Ellington to W. C. Handy to Percy Mayfield, and his vocals and violin pizzicato are every bit as intelligent and rousing. On one of those rare live albums free of longueur and superfluity, saxophonist Dennis Taylor and the rest of the alert band deserve a tip of his ten-gallon hat. -- © Frank John Hadley 1993

Customer Reviews

Simply Beautiful
This is without a doubt one of the best live blues recordings! It is so "Beautifull" that it makes tears well up in my eyes. Definitely a BUY!