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Imagine
Redd Foxx with a dirtier mind and a cleaner mouth, and youve got a bead on Bobby Rush. The energetic Jackson, Mississippi-based entertainer has been the King of the Chitlin Circuit for years. Its a title hes won with vaudevillian instincts, horny showmanship, spot-on ability as a singer, harpman, guitarist, and bandleader, and a knack for writing tunes that brim with playful down-home wit. This set captures the astonishingly youthful and vigorous Rush in concert for the first time in his 50-year career, strutting like a peacock with his bevy of booty-shaking dancers through crowd-pleasers like the lusty "You, You, You" and hits like the double-entendre laden sexual plea "Chicken Heads." Both discs--one a DVD of this show recorded at the Clarksdale, Mississippi club Ground Zero, the other a music-only CD--cover a strong 11-song set. The music disc has two bonus tracks: the Rush favorites "Sue," a playful tale of sexual initiation, and "That Thang," a slinky funk update of
Willie Dixons classic "Same Thing." If youve never seen Rushs singular and engaging stage shtick live, theres now no excuse.
--Ted Drozdowski