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and also the previously unreleased New Orleans-style ‘Mojo Mambo’ written by Mitch and
there are more Crescent City capers with Marcia Ball joining Mitch on vocals for Professor

Longhair’s ‘In the Night’. And speaking of New Orleans Cyril Neville joins Mitch to talk about
‘The Blues’ over Mitch’s piano (another previously unreleased track) plus we also have contri-
butions from Kenny Neal and Joe Louis Walker. We get a very dramatic ‘Never Get Out of
These Blues Alive’ with John Lee Hooker joining Mitch on vocals and guitar and another blues
legend James Cotton plays harp on Mitch’s train instrumental ‘Chicago Express’. I really

enjoyed this record, I’m no expert on blues piano but Mitch seems to be able to play all the
styles and you can tell that the guests all really respect him and are having a ball playing with
him, there is lots of variety here and although the sessions are informal the playing is first
class.

Graham Harrison

Otis Rush—Lay Awake at Night—JTree

This live recording from 1973 has been released before in vari-
ous formats but if you haven’t heard it before this latest digital
release is worth catching up with as it captures the late guitarist
live in a club - Joe's Place in Cambridge, Mass. Unlike many

similar live recordings this wasn’t a radio broadcast it was a
club gig recorded live and while not hi-fi quality the sound is
fine and really captures the atmosphere of one of the great
Chicago blues guitarists playing live. Otis is backed by a small
band – Little Bo (tenor sax), Ernest Gatewood (bass) and Bob Richards (drums) plus an

uncredited (?) piano – which means that you can really hear both his vocals and guitar.

The instrumental ‘Watermelon Man’ allows the band to warm up, it’s followed by ‘It Takes
Time’ and then a terrific six-minute version of one of his classic slow blues ‘I Can’t Quit You
Baby’. ‘Keep on Loving Me Baby’ picks up the pace and the somewhat inconsequential

instrumental ‘Popcorn’ keeps it up. Then Otis lets rip with a stinging guitar solo on the
introduction to ‘Gamblers Blues’ before paying homage to B.B. King with BB’s ‘Why I Sing the
Blues’ and ‘Please Love Me’ is a blues shuffle with riffing sax. We then get another Rush classic
the slow blues ‘Double Trouble’ before we finish with two soul songs, a melodic instrumental
version of Ike Turner’s ‘It’s Gonna Work Out Fine’ and James Brown’s ‘Please, Please, Please’.

Otis Rush should have been much better known and more successful but he was very unlucky
with a succession of record labels who didn’t promote him like his contemporaries the three
Kings - BB, Albert and Freddie. In fact he struggled so much in the 1970s that he gave up music
later in the decade, only coming back to playing later in the 80s. However, this album captures
him in his spiritual home - a club - with both his singing and his guitar playing being excellent.

Graham Harrison