Excellent Retro Blues!
deepbluereview | SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA USA | 07/18/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Take a Studebaker add a couple of Pretty Things, a drop of YardBird, a little Canned Heat and throw in some Chicago Southside Sisters and you get Chicago Blues with a strong under currant of English flavor.On this disc, vocalist Phil May and guitarist Dick Taylor of the English band the Pretty Things got together in 1991 with Yardbird drummer Jim McCarty, Canned Heat bassist Richard Hite and Chicago's Studebaker John on rhythm guitar for a rockin' night of raw blues. The band doesn't perform anything new on the disc, sticking to covers of Bo Diddley, Elmore James, Jimmy Reed and others. But the performance is nothing short of excellent. The vocals of Phil May are top notch and Taylor's guitar screams and cries like he was born and lived his entire life in the blues club of Chicago. The backgound beat of McCarty's drums are locked tightly with Hite's base and compliments Studebakers guitar and harp to form an almost perfect back drop from which May and Taylor work their magic. If, and that's a big if, there is a weak spot on this disc, it would have to be "Time Is On My Side" which just doesn't quite seem to fit with the rest of the tracks. Overall, it's raw, totally unrefined and in everyway near perfect."
Back to the roots
. | Chicago, IL USA | 10/13/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"These guys sound to me like I imagine the Stones would've sounded if they never ''made it" ,and just went on playing the music they loved, blues. Dick Taylor, the guitarist who originally played with Mick and Keith,(Mick in '57, Keith in '60, the three together in '61) is the guitarist here, (he left the Stones because he didn't want to make a permanent switch to bass to play with Keith and Brian."
A first rate blues rocker!
Russell Garrett | N.Y.C. | 04/20/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Take 2 Pretty Things, one Yardbird, one member of Canned Heat, shake well and what do you get? One heck of a blues-rocker! London R&B meets Chicago Blues. You'll dig it."