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The two Fillmore shows (8 and 9 November 1994) were recorded with the audio highlights
being remixed by Simon Climie and the resulting sound is excellent – listen to the semi-
acoustic ‘Motherless Children’ – it’s hard to believe that it’s live! Both Eric and the band are
really on it here, with Eric in great voice and his playing is spell-binding at times. As you would
expect we get blistering versions of songs by Eric’s blues guitar heroes BB King, Freddie King
and Otis Rush but also older players like Lowell Fulson’s ‘Reconsider Baby’ and also ‘Sinner’s
Prayer’. We also get Eric playing great slide guitar (this was before he met Derek Trucks and
Doyle Bramhall II) on both the Elmore James’ song ‘It Hurts Me Too’ and Muddy Waters’
‘Standing Around Crying’.

Eric re-works his version of Robert Johnson’s ‘Crossroads’ to give it a reggae/Bo Diddley twist,
complete with riffing horns and Mr. Portnoy on harp and this is followed by the acoustic
section of the show with Johnson’s ‘Malted Milk’ where Eric shares the lead guitar duties with
Andy Fairweather Low, the aforementioned ‘Motherless Children’ and Leroy Carr’s ‘How
Long’. Then it’s the two Lowell Fulson songs with Eric getting great tone on his Gibson 335
which he continues on into ‘Every Day I Have the Blues’. We then get three Freddie King songs,
with for me the highlight being ‘Tore Down’ as it was on the original album, a perfect coming

together of Eric’s voice and guitar with the band supporting him superbly and we keep the
same intensity for Otis Rush’s slow blues ‘Groaning the Blues’ which closes the album.

The concert is also available in a confusing array of formats including CD, double vinyl, DVD,
Blu-ray and the “super deluxe” collection which includes additional tracks, posters and other
memorabilia. It’s certainly nice to finally have access to both the film and also the live
recordings but you do wonder why it has taken so long.

Graham Harrison

G Love and Special Sauce—Philadelphia Mississippi—
Philadelphonic Records ASIN : B09Y64FCR9

G Love and Special Sauce’s new album blasts off with ‘Love
from Philly’ a track featuring rappers Chuck Treece and
Schoolly D as well as blues guitarist Trenton Ayers but it’s
more rap than blues and features some unsavoury effing and
jeffing. G. Love is mixing hip-hop with blues roots on this
album produced by Luther Dickinson (interestingly Luther’s
father Jim produced Special Sauce’s second album) with
contributions from the rappers above and also Bumpy
Knuckles and Speech from Arrested Development, along with
blues players Alvin Youngblood Hart, Christone “Kingfish”

Ingram, Jontavious Willis, Tikyra Jackson (Southern Avenue), R.L. Boyce and Sharde Thomas.
G. Love’s approach certainly gives the music a modern twist with many of the tracks being
improvised on the fly in the studio.

‘Mississippi’ with Youngblood Hart is a pleasing mixture of hip-hop, gospel and trance blues, as
is ‘My Ball’ with Jontavious Willis on guitar and also ‘Guitar Man’ with Christone “Kingfish”
Ingram on lead guitar and sharing the vocals with G. Love. ‘Kickin’’ is typical Special Sauce with
Chuck Treece and Lady Alma on background vocals and ‘HipHopHarpin’ is an instrumental
featuring G. Love and Youngblood Hart on harps while ‘Laughing in the Sunshine’ is a great