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Alvin Lee—Live in Vienna—Repertoire Repuk 1355

Alvin was one of blues-rock’s great pioneers, most notably lead-
ing his band, Ten Years After (TYA), to glory at the legendary
Woodstock festival in 1969. The band’s – or in reality Alvin’s –

performance was one of the stand-outs of the festival. He re-
makes that song, ‘Going Home’, here as a thirteen and a half
minutes long medley tour-de-force, drawing in blues and rock
and roll covers, and certainly doesn’t sound like a man wonder-
ing about being typecast, even if for some, the song did define
him.

When this set was recorded, Alvin’s current album was “Nineteen Ninety Four”, which was a
return to the basics. That is certainly the sound on this set. There are blues borrowed from
Sonny Boy Williamsons Nos. 1 and 2 (‘Good Morning Little Schoolgirl’ and ‘Help Me Baby’ (as
Alvin calls it) respectively, and Smiley Lewis with ‘I Hear You Knockin’’. Classic rock and roll
is courtesy of Little Richard’s ‘Rip It Up’ and Chuck Berry’s ‘Johnny B. Goode’, and it is obvious-
ly the sound of Alvin’s own original opener, the aptly titled ‘Keep On Rockin’.

All the tracks are powerhouse blues-rockers, with Alvin’s muscular vocals and super-speed
guitar work. The exceptions to this are a couple of shorter numbers, with Alvin scatting along
on ‘Skooboly Oobly Doobod’ and ‘Classical Thing’ in homage to Vienna’s classical past. ‘Love
Like A Man’ is a fine version of TYA’s big hit from 1970.

All in all, an extremely enjoyable set for anyone who loves blues-rock. If that’s you – get it!

Norman Darwen

Bernard Allison—Luther’s Blues—Ruf 1303 (2cd)

Singer and guitarist Bernard Allison has moved out of his father
Luther’s shadow and established himself as a fine blues artist in
his own right, but he’ll never quite escape his lineage. That’s OK
though, he doesn’t seem to want to — this set is a tribute to his
dad, more than three decades on from making his own debut
(and Ruf itself is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary). It is a
double CD set, picking up on Luther’s compositions that Ber-
nard himself has released on previous albums.

It also shows how Bernard has set out his own stall. The open-
ing track of the set is a tribute to Jimi Hendrix, and is followed by the mellow soul of ‘Reaching
Out’ whilst ‘Too Many Women’ is a muscular, funky blues. It may sound obvious but needs
restating perhaps that Bernard himself grew up on the traditional blues of his father’s gener-
ation. Lend an ear to ‘Bad Love’ with its slight west side Chicago shadings, the BB King tinge in
the vocal and playing on ‘Into My Life’, which also has plenty of Luther Allison in there too, or
more or less any of the tracks on the second CD. Then again, do note that the young man has
added more blues-rock and funk elements to his approach. It all goes to show that Bernard
himself is moving his blues on, whilst never losing sight of what he learned from his father.

It’s an impressive set all round. Recommended.