Customer Reviews

Live Now Appearing at Ole Miss

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

 

 

This was an album my dad happened to have in his large record collection--curious, I pulled it out & began listening to it. This was more than a few years ago. Of course I'd heard of B.B. King at the time, but it was with this album that I seriously gave his music--and the blues in general, for the matter--a listen for the first time. It wasn't long before I understood why this guy is considered the King of the Blues. This 2 CD live album, originally released as a double LP in 1980, conclusively demonstrates B.B.'s winning enthusiasm & charisma in a live setting.

He weaves in highly entertaining spoken monologues into the "Blues Medley" on disc 1. They're filled with self-depreciating wit and humor, and they brilliantly complement the songs themselves. B.B. sounds completely natural and unforced and puts his winning humbleness on full display.

B.B.'s got a wonderful, full & rich guitar tone going throughout the album, & his playing, though a tad stiff at times, is mostly terrific anyway. The instrumental "When I'm Wrong" is a perfect demonstration of the kind of soulfulness he captures with his guitar playing.

He's also in incredible peak form vocally on here, singing with great power but without the overslick highness you occasionally encounter on earlier recordings, or the overly weatherbeaten vocals that begin to creep in another decade down the line.

On "I Got Some Outside Help", a song about being cheated on, B.B. starts by delivering a terrific guitar performance, and then proceeds to unleash a riveting, perfectly phrased vocal, and the result is cathartic. "Never Make A Move Too Soon" is given a great, crisp, driving uptempo treatment that contrasts with the slyly laidback studio version from his 1978 "Midnight Believer" album. The feel-good "Rock Me Baby" and the swinging, uptempo, upbeat "Caldonia" are irresistible. The tender "Darlin' You Know I Love You" with its strong vocal and soulful song-ending guitar solo, is undeniably charming, as is the brief version of "Guess Who" which B.B. uses as a tribute to his fans. The 10+ minute, mostly instrumental version of "The Thrill Is Gone" is great as well--his guitar work is so supremely enjoyable, & the backing musicians are so solid & sympathetic to the material that it's arresting even as it runs on for over 10 minutes.

Despite all the great performances, there is some bad news with this album that mars it considerably. The album credits include the 'Sweetenings Percussion & Rhythm' of Nana Vasconcelos on percussions & Jon Jones on rhythm guitar, and presumably, between the two of them, they're responsible for subsequently overdubbing all kinds of ridiculous noises onto the album, including the 'boing'-y sound on "Darlin' You Know I Love You", the "woo"s that run throughout "Rock Me Baby", and the aimless, rambling, shockingly tasteless guitar on the verses of a drastically flawed version of "Hold On" (it appears on his 1978 "Midnight Believer" album in a strong studio version). In addition to this, on the opening & closing tracks, you get a hilariously obnoxious announcer who does a forced-sounding B.B. imitation near the beginning of the album. There is also some distracting noise that crops up on the "Blues Medley" and "Three O'Clock In The Morning" as if they were having some technical difficulties during the performance.

The ridiculously inappropriate noises that plague "'Now Appearing' at Ole Miss" are indeed a crime. If you took out the 4 or 5 weakest tracks here, subtracted the ridiculous overdubbed annoyances, polished up the recording quality just a hair, and slapped it all onto 1 CD, it'd make this one of the best CDs of all time. As it is, I still treasure the album dearly and have an undeniable soft spot for it--B.B. King is frequently spotlighted at his absolute best here, which is saying a LOT. Try to snap this up at a reasonable price.

This concert was a GREAT performance by B.B. to a wildly appreciative audience. I know, I was there. BUT when I first got the album, I was SO disappointed. The quality of the live recording is disappointing enough, but the instrumentation added in the studio (strings, percussion, etc.) completely undermines the feeling of the music. It's painful for me to listen to this album, knowing how good it COULD have sounded. Buy Live at the Regal and Live in Cook County Jail instead.

I thank the above reviewers for identifying the source of the extraneous cartoon sounds, which caused me to return the CD pressing way back when because I thought there was an engineering problem.
Yes, these unwanted visitors come close to wrecking some classic renditions.
The set is loaded with Soul, however, the kind that connects with the audience and jumps back to inspire the star and his band. Live at The Regal is probably the favorite King live set, but it has some curious tracking. This Ole Miss experience is apparently *the* complete show, and King displays his mastery of making music and making the people happy. The screams from the crowd are somewhat surprising, as they are the kind of sound you might expect to hear in a Teddy Pendergrass or Luther Vandross excursion.
B. B. actually sounds a bit surprised, himself.
As usual the material is first-rate, and done with care, although King's vocals sound a little tired and his playing a mite heavy at times - he makes Lucille work hard for the University attendees.
Good versions throughout, the medley and "Guess Who?" being highlights, although personal favorite, the originally unreleased single side, "You Know I Love Me", has a very tough time getting off the ground. And it's not the wind chimes and boomerang noises to get in the way, this time.

If you like BB King, this album won't leave you wanting. It's got a lot of songs, and he is in his prime. Get it if you can find it. I had a hard time finding it. Since losing my original copy, it's been hard finding it in stock.

I've seen BB in concert four times (twice near the time of this recording), and he is always a lot better in concert than on his studio recordings. This is a recording of a concert, however later they "sweetened" it in the studio, adding a bunch of junk that seriously detracts from the performance. If you can listen past the "sweetener", it is great. If it weren't for the "sweetener" that was added, this would be at least a 4 star CD.

I've had the fortunate pleasure of getting to see Mr. King twice in concert. Once in Houston, Tx and the other at BB King's Blues Club on Beale Street in Memphis, TN. He is standard that all other modern blues musicians are judged by. "Live at Ole Miss" is one of my favorite BB King CD's. Listening to this CD makes you feel like you are at a live BB King concert. Buy this CD; You'l listen to it again and again.

Someone I work with let me borow this album and I fell in love. I never knew blues could be so funny. Great sense of humor!