2 comments about Live at Joe's 1973.

1. that's right. howlin wolf with a great band-the wolf gang. they are cookin!.the sound is very good, mono, but really no hiss and instruments come through quite well for live recording in 1973. Wolf sings only on 4 songs but that is almost 26 minutes. the rest of the songs (cd is about 65 minutes) are very good and band is great.



2. Howlin' Wolf sings only FOUR songs on this album. The other songs are instrumentals or are sung by other bandmembers, including Detroit Junior and Eddie Shaw. Those guys are good, and I have their records, too, but I wanted Wolf here. I gave it the second star for the pictures. Recorded in Cambridge, Mass.

No comments about American Living Blues Festival 1982.

No comments about The Hope Street Sessions/Live at the Lakeside Lounge.

No comments about The Rising Sun Collection.

No comments about Live.

5 comments about The Essential Odetta.

1. Heard an excerpt of Odetta's singing on NPR and got so excited I bought two CDs. Unfortunately there was nothing on the label to warn me that "the Essential Odetta by Odetta" was a recording of a live concert. There is nothing more annoying on a CD than to have to listen to enthusiastic and long-lasting applause after each piece. It disturbs my enjoyment and does not make me feel that I'm at a concert. It only makes me feel that I was taken in by a low-budget recording of a live performance instead of a work performed in a studio with care for the listening audience.



2. One star off for poor mastering.
   
   It is not an exageration for me to tell you that this is one of my all-time favorite albums - or more properly, Live at Carnegie Hall is (which is mostly found on this one, along with Live at Town Hall). When I first heard this on LP, I couldn't stop listening to it. It's something everyone should hear in their lifetimes. It makes the case for why Odetta has been recognized by the Library of Congress as a Living Legend. Just listen to the sound clips for a taste of how great it is.
   
   However - I had the vinyl version. It sounds better than this. The problem with this CD is that it is in desperate need of remastering. The sound levels are so low that the dolby noise reduction used cuts into the instruments. Trying to adjust between the soft and loud parts is tricky, and you have to be careful not to blow your eardrums out if you're wearing headphones. Those of you who had CB radios and know what "squelch" is - this quickie mastering job suffers from that phenomenon. At the time (1990) a lot of record companies were coming out with poor mastering jobs, many of which have been revisited and corrected. Unfortunately that has not happened yet with this classic album.
   
   If anyone at Vanguard is listening - PLEASE REMASTER THIS ALBUM! It should be regarded as a national treasure and it deserves better treatment. I will gladly buy it again. And by the way, I notice you lopped off a few tracks from the original albums - well you have 17 free minutes with which to add back some of those tracks! Please do so, it will be greatly appreciated.



3. I have been listening to and occasionally attending concerts by Odetta for over forty years and she still brings that big strong voice to her work as she did when I first heard her. A big strong strumming guitar adds to the pleasure. She is the consummate female interpreter of the old ballads that denoted the struggle of blacks and other at work and play in slavery times and later in wage slavery times. Religious sentiments about a better life in the hereafter because this life so is hell are also interwoven into some these ballads. It is hard today to get the full impact of that genre but I have noticed that audiences still response to her gentle prodding to sing along. If you have one Odetta album to get this is the one. Some children-oriented ballads, also sing-along-able add to the flavor of this album. Standouts here are If I Had A Hammer and Long Chains On.



4. Odetta's passion brings home the burden of the slave and the sharecropper. Haunting! Sound quality could be improved.



5. "The Essential Odetta", consisting of 20 live songs, was recorded and released in the early sixties as two separate albums capturing performances at Carnegie Hall and Town Hall. The full 20 songs showcase her extraordinary singing capabilities, interpreting folk and blues numbers. It is one of the two best compilations of her work, the other one being "Best of the Vanguard Years".
   
   Since her debut in 1954, Odetta served as an inspiration to folk artists such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, who picked up steam in the mid-to-late sixties. It was, as a matter of fact, thanks to the Martin Scorcese documentary about Dylan, "No Direction Home", that I first heard of her, and I am glad I did. This is one fine artist that deserves to be discovered by the new generations.

No comments about Bo Roberts & The Port City Allstars: Live.

No comments about Live Bait.

2 comments about Live in Stockholm.

1. This CD is a disaster in that it's a poorly recorded and badly produced bootleg of some of Basie's greatest music, deserving of being in everyone's collection (except for the absolutely pitiful sound). Submarine Records should be ashamed of themselves for putting this on the market at any amount of money.



2. Based on the samples alone, I can only imagine this is a bootleg made from someone's miniature cassette recording.
   
   As it stands, it could only interest those desperate for every possible scrap of historical material. Not even worth the shipping cost for someone who enjoy's Basie's music.

2 comments about Live.

1. that's how robben describes jimmy witherspoon but the same could be said of mr ford. while 'spoon's vocal talents are severely diminished here, his back up group positively cooks.

   the rhythm section is tight, the B3 player (whose name obviously eludes 'spoon -"give it to HIM!") is tasty and robben is clearly inspired. he has that unique combination of intelligence, feel, tone and swing and clearly knows how to support the singer and the song. the performance is a little more measured than it is raw but robben's choices are so perfect, it's impossible to find fault. despite the game but less-than-stellar performance by jimmy w., this set delivers big time.




2. this performance by rf and jw should be listened to in conjunction with their earlier performance when rf was just 18 or so (The cd is Live and is available here).For my money rfs playing on the earlier cd is more interesting and more vital.He's never been one to play much with pentatonics but even when he does you can feel something.With jw singing its a great pairing.Now if you want to hear rf in his jazzier incarnation listen to a cd called "A Song I Thought I heard Buddy Sing" probably listed under gerry granelli.Its a score written around the Ondjaate book 'Coming through Slaughter' about the new orleans horn player Buddy....Also take a listen to Joni Mitchells great live album Miles of Aisles in which she is accompanied by Tom Scotts band in which rf is the guitar player.The most boring of the rf stuff is the recent series of albums he ahs done with The Blue Line...if you must stay stuck in the blues the best records are the first one on arhoolie which is an album rf did with his family band The Charles Ford Band (also the name of the record) when he was 17.....or try Talk to my sister which is pre blue line .....