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R E V I E W S

The Steve Miller Blues Band—Live from Filmore West 1968—
Floating World Floatm 6406

Steve Miller? Is that the Steve Miller who had hits in the 70s and
80s with the likes of ‘The Joker’ and ‘Abracadabra’, or the (same)
guy, as here, who played the psychedelic blues back in the 60s (but
not the Steve Miller who recorded with Clifton Chenier)? Backed
by keyboards, bass and drums, Steve sings Boz Scaggs’ ‘Stepping
Stone’, a Chicago-styled blues from their debut album, and follows

it with the raw Mississippi blues of K.C. Douglas’, ‘Mercury Blues’,
one of the band’s signature songs and, as was the fashion at the
time, taken to the outer limits (and not dissimilar to Cream’s
lengthy cover of ‘Crossroads’).

There are then three songs with harmonica legend Paul Butterfield playing and singing, not
wonderfully recorded but worth hearing: Little Walter’s ‘Blues With A Feeling’ and a couple of
instrumentals, a generic ‘Butterfield Blues’ and the band’s own ‘Song For Our Ancestors’. ‘Roll With
It’ combines a boogaloo blues backing with psychedelic guitar, and The Isley Brothers’ ‘Your Old
Lady’ has plenty of Freddie King styled licks alongside the harmony vocals and more freak-out
guitar. The blues standard ‘Drivin’ Wheel’ is given a fine rolling treatment, and the set closes with
the Jimmy Reed styled ‘Bad Little Woman’.

The sound quality is acceptable for 50± years old broadcast tapes. Not long after this was recorded,
blues researcher Bob Groom wrote a book called “The Blues Revival”, in which he looked at the
pervasive influence of the blues on the popular music of the time. This is exactly the kind of music
he had in mind…

Norman Darwen

Cathy Grier & the Troublemakers—I’m All Burn—CG Music

Works

Originally from Connecticut, Cathy now lives in Sturgeon Bay,
Wisconsin. In between, she worked in New York as a blues-singing
busker, and she is one superbly soulful singer and a mean blues

guitarist—certainly if this release is anything to go by!

The title track sets out the case for women’s equality and a
transformation of male attitudes—if that sounds heavy, well, it is
set to a wonderfully strutting rhythm and blues arrangement and
boasts some meaty horns (as do several other tracks). ‘Get Me Away’ follows, a brooding minor-key

slow blues, a nice contrast with the more upbeat, 60s R’n’B flavoured ‘Down On My Knees’.

‘Backroad Blues’ is more downhome, with harp and slide guitar up-front, and the remainder of the
set falls into either a fine blues category (try the boogie-based ‘Key To My Survival’ or the slowly