Customer Reviews

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I was looking for some vintage Doug Kershaw when I ran across this fairly recent live album. I was severely dissapointed. I was hoping to hear some of the flamboyent fiddlin' of old but heard hardy any at all. The songs are medicocre and the arrangments are boring at best. The songs came across like demos. The only fiddle music on here is minor background playing, except a little intro on song #2. There is hardly any lead instrumentation at all. Thirty years ago I heard Kershaw play Orange Blossom Special at the speed of light at the Troubadour. I listened to this CD once and threw it out equally as fast.

If playing this music was all so easy, why couldn't Doug have recorded this kind of album back when his career needed it?
You might think I like the album. You see, Doug manages to get back on the right track, ditch the modern styles, and records an album of twangy, almost trad-country. The problem? The limp, uninspired, and generally forced performances that plague this disc. Did I mention the lame songs?
The claim is made that all of the material here is new songs Doug wrote for the album, which is dead wrong.
"Sing Along" and "I Might Cry" were from the 1980 album "Instant Hero". "The Country Singer" and "Love City" were cut by Rusty Kershaw on his "Rusty... Cajun In The Blues Country" album from 1970. These four songs happen to be the best involved in this affair, but the original versions are far better. I'd rather hear Rusty wail "Love City" than Doug yodel it.
The rest of this album is steeped in cliche. "On The Bayou" is the most embarrasing. Generic lyrics we've all heard so many times.
Doug doesn't need to put out new albums anymore. The old ones are back in print, and that's all we really need.