Customer Reviews

Gospel of Blues

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This is one of three mike bloomfield albums that I own.

If you are looking for Bloomfields flashy chops one isn't for you. This is acoustic instrumental blues album with occasional electric guitar. I would call it easy chair blues. It sounds like old friends playing guitar on a rainy day . I give it four stars because it is mastered well, and has some interesting traditional interpretations. I find the simplicity of this recoding to be beautiful.

OK, ($$$) isn't too bad to check out some of the later work of a guitar legend. A couple of these songs ("The Altar Song" and "If You Love These Blues") were released by Guitar Player Records in 1977, according to the liner notes. The rest are from some sessions in 1979. However "Farther Along", "Gonna Need Somebody On My Bond" and "Just A Closer Walk With Thee" also appear on Shanachie's release "Blues, Gospel and Ragtime Guitar Instrumentals". There is quite a bit of overlap on the myriad of cheap Bloomfield releases. The companies make some money either way. Laserlight's other Bloomfield release "The Root of Blues" also overlaps with the Shanachie release and is wholly comprised of tracks from Guitar Player Records 1977 release.

The sound quality of this disc is not as good as the Shanachie release. But for ($$$)and the Laserlight line that's not surprising. There are errors in the liner notes too such as suggesting that "If You Love These Blues" which is just a minute of little blues which Mike voices over, is 3 minutes long. Or listing that Mike plays all bass, drums and organ when inside it lists different players for each instrument. The plus side of the liner notes is that they have what appear to be commenst from Mike himself on each track.

I'm not sure what to say about the performances. They're ok. At times there's tremolo on the electric guitars which is distracting. Largely it's a laid back acoustic affair with Woody Harris sometimes accompanying. However if you want to hear what all the fuss is about this is NOT the place to go. If you're a completist or you want to hear what the guy was doing not too long before the end if his life then I guess you should get it. I hope to that end I cleared up what's on this CD.

The guy was a legend and clearly loves this music. However personally I wonder if I need this CD in my collection. It was cheap, but I don't think it adds to an understanding of the blues, just the artist. I'm not sure I can be any more non-commital, but at least you have some clue what's on it.