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First up it is Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee with four songs including ‘Kansas City Blues’ and

‘Easy Rider’. This acoustic duo need no introduction to blues fans and they are on cracking form
here generating a fantastic response from the audience.

Next up it’s Memphis Slim with a great rendition of Big Bill Broonzy’s ‘Just A Dream’. The piano,
the vocal and the delivery is what the blues is all about, this is a classic. Willie Dixon takes over
singing duties accompanied by Memphis Slim on piano with ‘Sittin’ And Cryin’ The Blues’.

The album moves on with T-Bone Walker at his guitar maestro best with ‘Call It Stormy Monday’.
Things really start to swing with ‘My Baby Is Now On My Mind’, this guy really led the way and
influenced so many great guitarists. During this performance you can hear the audience laugh and
whoop which I assume meant that T-Bone was performing his on-stage tricks such as playing his
guitar behind his back or playing with his teeth, yes all well before Hendrix! The album closes with

all the artists joining together in an ensemble with the aptly titled ‘Bye Bye Baby’.

If you are familiar with these great blues artists you will love this. If you are new to the blues this
is a great place to start. The sound quality is surprisingly good considering but what really counts
is richness and warmth that comes across from both the artist and the audience just as a true live
gig should.

This album is a pivotal moment for British blues and indeed for the Free Trade Hall itself,
predating the infamous Bob Dylan and Sex Pistols concerts but that’s another story.

Ged Wilson

Charlie Slavik— A Nice Reminder—Independent

Charlie Slavik, the blues singer and harmonica player from the
Czech Republic, travelled to Nashville, Tennessee to record this

album, and his joy at doing so is immediately apparent on the
rocking opener, ‘Highway Man’. The following track, ‘Devil
Inside’ is a rather nice bluesy track with a tinge of country (ditto
‘Do You Remember’), and the band impress once again – Steve
Walsh on guitars, who also handled production duties, Brian
Allen bass and Wes Little on drums are local musicians very
responsive to Charlie’s approach. Listen to the quiet, delicate

‘Riding In The Moonlight’, with Charlie’s regular accompanists, vocal trio The Rhythm Girls,
supplying an appropriately ethereal sound.

By now you may have gathered this is rather a distinctively individual release, and you’re right.
There is a fun, jazzy, western-swing inflected jump-blues with The Rhythm Girls on ‘Big BBQ’, and

‘Love Me, Let Me Go’ and ‘Juke Joint’ establish the album’s blues credentials beyond doubt. The
former is a straightforward blues shuffle, the kind of thing that should be on a vintage 45, and the
latter a driving number with tinges of the Mississippi Hill Country sound. The title track would
also have made a good top-side of a 45, though in this case it would be a bluesy pop-soul 45 from
the 60s.

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