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REVIEWS

Bonnie Raitt Live—The Record Plant 1973—Home-

spun ASIN : B0CP91RNP5

Long available as a bootleg, this album was originally
recorded at the Record Plant recording studio in Sausal-
ito, California and broadcast on KSAN radio in September

1973 just after the release of her third (and in my opinion
her best) album “Taking My Time”. It was recorded in
front of a small audience and the sound quality is very
good with material from her first three records showing

her gradual transition from an acoustic to a more electric
sound. Although ‘Taking My Time’ featured members of Little Feat and other guests
such as Taj Mahal this recording is with her road band of the excellent David
Maxwell (piano), Freebo (bass) and Dennis Whitted (drums) – with occasionally
Joel Tepp (clarinet, guitar).

We get underway with Chris Smither’s ‘Love Me Like a Man’ and then the jazzy ‘You
Got to Know How’, closely followed by Jackson Browne’s ‘Under the Falling Sky’ all
from Bonnie’s second album. All these are fine versions with both Bonnie and the
band sounding relaxed and in the groove. However, it’s the version of Mose Allison’s
‘Everybody’s Crying Mercy’ where the album really catches fire.

David Maxwell’s piano is imperious (better than Allison’s?) with Freebo’s bass also
outstanding and soaring on top is Bonnie singing in a cool and very controlled
manner. ‘Give It Up or Let Me Go’ brings us back to the blues with Bonnie playing
slide and Mr. Tebb adding his clarinet, while Joel Zoss’s ‘Too Long at the Fair’ is more

folky and is followed by another Chris Smither song, the moody ‘I Feel the Same’.
Randy Newman’s ‘Guilty’ from ‘Taking My Time’ is another standout, ditto the
poignant ‘Love has No Pride’ by Libby Pervis and we finish with Aretha’s ‘Baby I
Love You’ (which Bonnie only actually recorded years later on B.B. King’s “Deuces

Wild” album). This is a wonderful album that catches Bonnie at the start of her
career but even here her vocals are already fully formed and fabulous and the band
support her very sympathetically.

Graham Harrison

Lacy Gibson and Joe Carter—I Didn't Give a Damn If

Whites Bought It! Ralph Bass Sessions Vol. 1—Red
Lightnin ASIN :B0CN3PV767

This album was recorded in Chicago’s PS Studios in 1977

by Ralph Bass and features two second division Chicago
blues singer/guitar players - Lacy Gibson and Joe Carter.

They are backed by some of Chicago’s blues greats Sun-
nyland Slim (piano), Fred Below (drums) and Willie