Customer Reviews

Albert Colins- Live From Austin, TX

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The last two years have been a gold mine for Albert Collins fans. Since his untimely death in 1993 material on the Ice Man has been scarce. Last year we got the fantastic second show from Baden-Baden Germany by the Inakustik people. This year we have two new sets. The Montreux show just released is great with the incredible four bonus tracks from 1979 Montreux is perhaps Albert at his very best.

This "Live from Austin Texas" set is also incredible and features Collins with a superlative Texas-based band. The performance is fantastic and should be heard in 5.1 sound! The set was filmed just about two years before he died, October 1991. He was still a vital performer. This set was originally released from a video tape by Vestapol as "Texas Blues Guitar" in conjunction with the Stephan Grossman Guitar Workshop. "Iceman", "Light's Are Out" and "Head Rag" were included in that DVD transfer. I knew this complete DVD would be great! On this show the picture quality is excellent and the sound fantastic.

The complete set includes the insrumental "Mr Collins, Mr Collins" which is a bit like an instrumental version of "Tired Man". It sets the scene for this All-Star Band. The line-up being Texan Derek O'Brien, whose playing Collins loved and used to play with several times a year at the famous Antone's in Austin. He is really cool and listen to his economic, well spaced solos with great vibrato on a 1950s vintage Stratocaster. Reece Wynan's, also a local, of SRV's Double Trouble, is the organist and contributes a few excellent solos.

The band also includes the fabluous sax player Jon Smith and Trumpeter Steve Howland-listen to his chops on "Frosty"-from Albert's final band. And an augmented horn section has two local horn players, sax and trombone, from Austin. On drums Collin's has Soko Richardson, he is fun to watch, who played with Ike and Tina Turner and John Mayall. And the fantastic bassist Johnny B. Gayden, with Collin's since 1979 formerly of the Staple Singers.

The set continues with "Black Cat Bone" from the Grammy Award winning LP "Show Down". Collin's loved this tune and used it a lot, even though the original was sung but the "Texas Twister" Johnny Copeland on the LP.
Next is "Iceman", probably his most video recorded tune, its from his last CD which was Blues and Funk inspired. This is a very good version.

"Light's Are On But Nobody's Home" is of course classic slow blues, Collins'-style with great solos. "Put The Shoe On The Other Foot" is more classic late Collins. Watch Derek O'Brien's backup guitar on this- fantastic! "The Things That I Used To Do" is another Collins classic taken from the great Guitar Slim (Eddie Jones). Collins' plays some great understated solos in this one as does Derek O'Brien. "Head Rag" also from Albert's final CD is a great funk tune. Johnny B. Gayden's solo is fabluous as is Derek's two solos.

A highlight of this DVD is "Travellin South" a great uptempo tune in which the band is really tight and cool. They really get into it! It's his best version of it. Finally of course we have "Frosty" with its usual catchy, technically brilliant riffs and great solos. Albert does his walk through the crowd at the end--with a very, very long guitar lead which he was famous for-got it from Guitar Slim- and it's always fun to watch.

This is an excellent addition to one's collection of Albert Collin's material. I find them all engaging and different for they all have some different band personnel and show Albert in different stages of his career. This show is an excellent production.

My favorite of all the Albert Collins DVDs....in part because of the high quality of the Austin City Limits productions, in part because he was promoting a new release on Point Blank records and was playing those tunes, which are great, in part because being on TV he had to keep the show tight, with less of the other non essential members not detracting from him, in part because he was really proud to be on that show and kicked BUTT!!
I love this man and his music and if there were only ONE DVD of his I could keep this would be it!
As he said...don't confuse kindness for weakness
he will always be.... the master of the telecaster!!!!!

Another great performance by Albert Collins. As good as the Montreax DVD, but not a duplication of that concert. The same quality that you've come to appreciate from the Live From Austin TX series - great audio and great video. A must have.

One of the great American blues icons. If you are a fan of the blues, this is almost a mandatory DVD to own!

They keep coming up with new offerings from the Iceman. As an avid fan, I am compelled to buy any video available. This one is better than most of the 80s titles. Albert's set list didn't vary too much the last few years of his life, making this similar to Mt Fuji, and Live at Montreux, even though this was an earlier show than either. Albert struts his stuff, and gives his usual 150% to the audience, backed by a crackerjack band that obviously has great respect for him, as well they should. Worth the money, even if you are just a casual fan. Where did he get those 300' cables? Rating:*****

I thought this was a great dvd, with an outstanding performance by the Ice Man, but man, that strap really bugged me--maybe that is one of his trademarks, I don't know. If you just listened to it, or only had the cd, you would never know. Anyway, I highly recommend this dvd.