Customer Reviews

Live & Burning

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an awesome collection of electric blues. Some reviewers rate this behind Seals' "Spontaneous Combustion", but I prefer this one. S.C. is also solid, but "Live & Burning" is a little more "raw". Great cuts thoughout, and a really good mix. One of my favorite blues CDs - and I have a LOT of blues CDs.

Can you say INTENSE? Probably the most accurate title for a recording ever. It captures Son at the peak of his power. The guitar bites and claws, the vocals, gruff and in your face, are sung with a conviction rarely, if ever, matched in the blues genre. The rest of the band is tight and in the groove.The emotion jumps at you from the speakers. A huge plus is this recording is made the way a live blues record should be made. The mix isn't perfect, the mistakes and feedback are left in, the crowd noise is left in. It IS however, the closest thing to being in a smoky, crowded blues club that you will find on CD. A must buy!!!

This is the best live blues album -- and one of the best blues albums -- you will ever hear. (Note its recording history in the book "Deep Blues.") Raw, uninhibited, a glimpse of Son Seals as he sounds in a crowded club. Seals picks up where Muddy left off in Chicago, without any of the post-modern bull. Back in the day I had friends who ran a record shop. Each time they put this one on the turntable they would sell out the stock.

Son Seals is really one of the titans of the current blues scene who should be spoken of in the same conversation as BB King, Buddy Guy, and Ronnie Earl. Of the many albums I have, this is one of the best, Son with his own band burning it up in a club full of real blues lovers. Although the set here features several covers (Son is one of the great composers, as you'll learn on subsequent albums), they are delivered in quite personal, intense renditions (esp. Litle Walter's "Last Night") that show that Son picked up the best from watching the legends who used to play his father's Arkansas club in the 1950's. This is one of the gems on the Alligator label, so by all means buy it along with the others he has in the catalog. His vocals have grit, and his guitar is like a nasty fusion of BB, Albert (King), and Hubert Sumlin. And see Son when he plays near you.

Son Seals' first live album, "Live and Burning" came out in 1978, and it features Frank "Son" Seals and his band playing live at the Wise Fools Pub in Chicago.
It was his third LP, and while casual fans may lament the fact that there are almost no songs here from either of Son's first two albums, what is here is very good in its own right. Sure, it would have been great to hear him do "Four Full Seasons of Love" or "Mother-in-Law-Blues", but think of it this way: Here you get not only a sizzling live album, but a full eight new songs, or at least songs which don't appear on Seals' studio albums.

Son Seals himself is in excellent form on "Live and Burning", and saxist A.C. Reed provides soul and some fine counterpoints to Seals' stinging lead guitar, especially on songs like "Blue Shadows Falling" and Reed's own "She's Fine".
Overall, these nine selections lack that little bit of extra brilliance which would have made this a five-star album, and "Live and Burning" certainly isn't the greatest live blues record ever. But it is a really, really good one nonetheless. Son Seals is equally convincing on slow blues as he is on rollicking R&B numbers; he breathes new life into the old Detroit Junior single "Call My Job", a muscular, swaggering rendition which'll automatically starts your head bobbing if you're not careful.

The wonderful "Spontaneous Combustion" is Seals' best live album, but this one is not far behind at all. If you're new to Son Seals, start by picking up either Alligator's "Deluxe Edition", or the magnificent "Midnight Son", but don't forget to scoop this one up along the way.

I give this CD 4 stars instead of 5 only because I like Seals' Spontaneous Combustion a bit better, and, for me, this genre is epitomized by Luther Allison. Son Seals, however, runs a close second for me ... a real, working bluesman ... a practitioner of true art. This album truly captures the feel of a live club performance. If you've never heard the blues played Chicago style, in an intimate, smoky club, this CD and Seals' Spontaneous Combustion capture the feel as well as anything I've heard. The vocals are, of course, soulful, and the guitar work superb. This man *lives* his music, and it shows.

I have a problem with Alligator Records. The over-produced sameness and glossy slickness of the stuff they did for Son Seals' studio albums is in direct contradiction to the rawness of his basic style. This album, however, shows it the way it should be...warts and all.
Son's guitar playing and singing are direct and powerfull (ie: raw and aggressive). This album shows him doing what he did best: kicking out hard, ripping bar blues. The song "Funky Bitch" is worth the price of the album on its own. His other live album "Spontaneous Combustion" is great too, but "Live and Burning" kicks its butt, steals its wallet, and dumps it in the alley.
If you like a lot of slick, Hollywood horn arrangements and syrupy production look elsewhere, but if you want to hear what it sounds like listening to a killing machine tear the house apart.... THIS is the album for you.

My mom doesn't like live recordings because the roar of the audience interferes with the music. Her Neil Diamond and Barry Manilow live LPs were recorded in front of huge crowds in indoor arenas where the crowd is nothing more than white noise that can be heard in between tracks. Son Seals' "Alive and Burning" was recorded in a club with the audience mere feet away, and rather than white noise one hears hollers, whistles and hoots from individual audience members. And it's not just in between tracks. Whistles and hollers can be heard during the songs. My mom would hate it.

A lot of other people might not like this. You've seen them outside of Starbucks, sipping on a café latte with their legs crossed looking oh so sophisticated. Those types of people would hate it too.

But I love it. This is as good as blues gets as far as I'm concerned. This is lead guitar based live blues. There are a couple of horn solos but that's it. The entire performance is carried by Son Seals' screaming lead guitar which blasts through his amp with just the perfect amount of overdrive. I realize that this is not for everyone. This CD is distinctly different from Seals' other work. It's high-testosterone blues.

Son Seals shows his skillful and masterful guitar playing on "Live and Burning." Originally released in 1978, Seals is playful in mood and exquisite in his playing.

He shows his skills on such songs as "I Can't Hold Out," ""Blue Shadows Falling," "She's Fine," and "Call My Job."

Seals would succumb to diabetes years later, but would leave a legacy of great blues music. This record does nothing to dispel that notion.

blues as it was meant to be; live!!! blistering riffs, sax, bass, drums and rough vocals that give you the feeling that he know's what he is talking about!!!