Customer Reviews

Live From the Electric Ballroom 1974

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Freddie King was a monster of the blues and this CD shows exactly why. His guitar playing is ferocious, explosive, incendiary, soulful, emotional, and beautiful all at the same time. Freddie does several of his best known tunes including Hide Away, Have You Ever Loved A Woman, Key To The Highway and Dust My Broom. These are just as great as Clapton's versions, though they sound a bit different. Buy this CD for Freddie's awesome singing and guitar-playing, but you'll also get some fascinating interviews with him and two acoustic performances. As good as Freddie sounds on an electric guitar, he sounds just as good on an acoustic. Highly recommended.

this live CD perfectly depicts freddie in his prime. at an emotional and talent high freddie does a great preformance. the sound quality ain't perfect but aint bad it sounds like it was recorded with analog!!! (which is great) all in all i own alot of freddie king alblums but this one gonna stay in my CD player for a while!!!

This is as good a blues performance as you will ever get. The original album cover had a photo closer to the time of the concert (1974). The recordings were actually made from some old reel-to-reel tapes a King associate had laying in his closet. We are presented with Freddy King playing and singing a powerful, intense electric blues set. "Big Legged Woman" highlights the set, and the acoustic cuts are special because they are the only recordings of King playing acoustic, not to mention he played great. If you collect live albums, this one is a must-have.

This CD captures the essence of Freddie King in the type of venue in which he was at his best - live, in front of an appreciative audience. I was lucky enough to have heard him several times before his death. Once was in November of 1975 at Oklahoma State University's Gallagher Hall. The concert was particulary memorable in that Freddie had the 300 or so people who attended make the 6000+ seat sports arena sound as if it were sold out. That place was rockin'! This CD gives the listener a feel for what it was like to hear and experience his music on a night such as that, something you'll never get from his studio recordings.

Much of enjoying Freddie's music was visual. He was a big, powerful looking guy that played with a lot of obvious emotion; emotion that at time made him seem as if he were angry. He had a manner that said, "If you don't like what I'm playin' or how I'm playin' it, I'm gonna come down there and kick your butt." You couldn't help but like the guy's music, otherwise he was going to kill you! This demeanor doesn't really come through on the CD but if you turn it up loud, I mean really loud, then you'll have the next best thing to having experienced the Texas Cannonball at his finest.