All Your Love I Miss Loving: Live at The Wise Fools Pub Chicago [Live]

Otis Rush | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 22, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Delmark
• ASIN: B000BBOTU0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,098 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

This CD, the only Otis Rush live in Chicago album, results from the fortunate conjunction of three significant forces in the 1970s Chicago blues scene: Otis Rush, the Wise Fools Pub, and the WXRT "Unconcert." Though I was on hand when the recordings were made and knew of course that the tapes existed, I had long given up hope that they would ever be issued. Their appearance now, some 30 years later, is cause for tremendous excitement among lovers of Chicago blues.

Otis Rush is one of a handful of Chicago Blues artists who is both a fluent and innovative guitarist and a singer of tremendous range and power - the soul-baring singing and the long, sustained guitar lines tell you why you love the blues.

-From the liner notes by Steve Tomashefsky.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Something New From Otis Rush- Finally., December 29, 2005

By 

Perry Celestino (Tahmoor, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: All Your Love I Miss Loving: Live at The Wise Fools Pub Chicago [Live] (Audio CD)

Otis Rush has always been one of the enigmas of the Blues World. He has retired, refused to play, walked out on recording sessions, even changed his voice (ala "Screamin' and Moanin'). Otis has not had a CD release in seven years since the excellent "Any Place I'm Goin'" set in 1998 (a lovely innovative recording).

Otis and Buddy Guy are the last of the West Side Bluesmen. While Buddy seems to get more popular and out there, Otis seems to have gotten more reclusive. For example, he should have been on the "Lightning In A Bottle" DVD at Radio City in 2003! Otis has had a bad time with record companies, managers, royalties, and the rest of it. This is a re-issue of a long lost tape of him playing in Chicago in the 1970s. We hear a younger, stronger and very impressive Mr Rush.

This set was recorded at the Wise Fools Pub in Chicago. It was part of a Chicago Radio Station live concert series sponsored by 7 Up of all things. As with most of Otis' output it took years for these tapes to become available. This CD is a must for Otis fans.

The tracks we hear include some of his best live performances yet released. He, interestingly, stays away from his normal set list (which we all have three or four versions of) and does some interesting never before heard tunes.

Otis starts with BB King's "Please Love Me" and goes through a varied set with a couple of old favourites like "All Your Love", (well we can't get enough of that one), and an eight minute "Gambler's Blues". However, he also offers new material in Robert Nighthawk's (later B.B. King's) "Sweet Little Angel", "Motoring Along", "High Society", "Mean Old World"(T-Bone Walker), "You're Breaking My Heart", "Woke Up This Morning" and others which make this a definate collector's item. It's a fantastic set.

Any material or recordings of Otis Rush are scarce! This CD is a must for Blues Fans. It is also released on the old Delmark label as well, one of the premier Blue's Labels(Jr Well's Hoodoo Man). Get this CD and Otis Rush's only two DVD performances: Live Part 1 on Blues Express and Live at Montreux.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "WHAT A BLUES TREASURE FROM 30 YEARS AGO!", January 16, 2007

By 

Rick Shaq Goldstein "*SHAQ*" (Danville, Ca, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: All Your Love I Miss Loving: Live at The Wise Fools Pub Chicago [Live] (Audio CD)

It's hard to believe that this was recorded at a pub over 30 years ago, and the tape was sitting on a shelf. The one problem I've personally encountered when buying older electric blues CD's, is sometimes the recordings, are so bad, they sound like it was recorded with a nail, by Thomas Edison. I.e.: "Buddy Guy & Otis Rush" "Blue on Blues", and "Buddy Guy & Junior Wells", Chicago Blues Festival 1964!" (Do not waste your money or your hopes on those two!) THAT IS NOT THE CASE with "LIVE AT THE WISE FOOLS PUB CHICAGO"! This is a crisp, clear, recording. In fact, it is louder than some of my brand new CD's. This is a winner from start to finish. Otis is in top form, guitar and voice wise. As of this writing, I have listened to it at least fifty times, and it is as fresh and rewarding, as the first time. Buy it, and it will be a valued member of your electric blues collection!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Living Legend, July 27, 2007

By 

Mr. Mambo (Burnsville, MN USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: All Your Love I Miss Loving: Live at The Wise Fools Pub Chicago [Live] (Audio CD)

For almost fifty years Otis Rush has been one of the most powerful singers and innovative guitarists we have ever had. But what is truly mystifying is that for most of this time--and this continues to this day--Otis has been an unsung hero of the blues. He is taken for granted.

At the beginning of HIS career, John Mayall did everything he could to spread the word about the greatness of Otis Rush. He recorded one of Otis' masterpieces, All Your Loving (I Miss Loving), on his legendary Clapton/Bluesbreakers LP. And Mayall is now called the "Grandfather of British Blues." So that gives you an idea of the stature and longevity of Otis Rush. Clapton and Vaughn and Cray and Jonny Lang and Kenny Wayne and hundreds of others have gone on to great fame and success and riches, singing the music of Otis Rush and others. Ironic that the young followers got most of the props and recognition. But they are all very good musicians and it is not my intention to denigrate them; more power to them for keeping the blues alive! As technically proficient and talented as these guys are, at best they are only interpreters; at worst, imitators or even plagiarists.

Please, don't bother listening to them unless you have listened to the real thing first. This is the real thing: live electric blues wonderfully recorded at a small blues club, by one of the all-time greats, one of the innovators, one of the originals. Otis Rush is to Chicago blues as Robert Johnson and Son House were to country blues. Incredibly and fortunately, he is still with us, still vital, still performing.

There are only a handful of truly great original Chicago blues performers still around, and Otis, with Buddy Guy, is at the top of the list. I would not hesitate to call Otis THE greatest combination blues singer/guitarist ever.

How can someone this fabulous so be relatively unknown?