Customer Reviews

Live

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

THE original "Horn" band the from the late '60s and early '70s has banded together once again to delight the ears of their fans. The Sons of Champlin show once again why they were always the favorite musicians of musicians. I love the intensity of this album. The CD listens better at high volumes. The engineers must have mixed this at a fairly high volume, because if it is played at a low listening level, the CD lacks some life. So buy it and crnk it up!!(but this is a live album isn't it?) For anyone who likes jazz, rock, and popular music mixed together will thoroughly enjoy this long-awaited recording of the best and most enjoyable rockin' horn band ever assembled. LISTEN THREE TIMES AND YOU"LL BE HOOKED!

The Sons of Champlin Live is the best CD I have ever heard. I've been a fan since 1968,when I heard they had Live CD out I ordered it the next day. This is without any doubt the best live recording I have ever heard. I have turned alot of people on to The Sons by playing this CD for them and beleive me they are all hooked. If you get a chance to see them live do it,the best music you well ever hear.Give it to someone as a gift they will love you forever.

As a kid growing up in southern Cal in the late 1960s, I only heard briefly about this "hippie band" from Northern Cal calling themselves "The Sons of Champlin." In 1973, at my cousin's wedding in Ross, CA someone put on "Welcome to the Dance" and I thought so these are the Sons. Not too shabby. And here some almost thirty years later I went to see these guys play at the 7th annual Marin Music Festival and was totally blown away. This CD comes close to capturing the live feel and is damn great. These guys can still cook thirty years later and I scratch my head and wonder how popular this band could have been if only things had been different. They've always had a rabid following among their fans.

Well, after seeing them live and buying this CD, consider me one of their rabid fans. I'm damn sorry I wasn't around to see them during their glory years but better late than never. This CD ROCKS! If you want a CD that rocks, rolls, makes ya want to dance, lifts your spirits sky high, then BUY IT (if you haven't already). But better yet, GO SEE these guys live!!

This is a great album. Their next one "Secret" is even better. Saw them at the Avalon Ballroom in SF at the beginning of May, 2003 and they cooked. If it can be better than the old days, it was! If you don't know this band and their music check it out. I'm not sure what genre' you describe, R&R, R&B, my daughter says jazz, but it is music for the soul. I play it really loud.
Bill Champlin has managed (with help from his friends) to play a distinctive music style for over 35 years.

Go for it.

I've listened to the Sons for the better part of the last twenty years. The best thng thatI could think to say is that they are probably Rock's best keep secret. Just about every person that I have turned on to this band has instantly fell in love with them. Their music has always kept me asking for more.

In a time when sameness rules, there's the Sons to tell us rock can be original and can go straight to your soul. Saw the Sons at Ludlow Garage (Cincinnati) in the late 60's. I'd give my right arm for them to come to the Midwest (Cleveland O-HI-O). Maybe I can talk the folks at the Rock Hall to bring them in.

Their live CD? That's a no-brainer purchase if I ever saw one. You want jaw-dropping, awesome, the-way-it-should-be rock 'n roll?? Catch the Sons on CD, or live if you can. Nobody ... NOBODY like 'em.

20 years after they broke up the Sons of Champlin got together again, and if anything they are tighter than ever. Most of the material on this disk dates from their first album, or even earlier in the case of the opening "Fat City", but the playing is so strong that everything sounds fresh. Bill Champlin's singing remains one of rock's most under appreciated treasures, Terry Haggerty's masterful rhythm playing and mind boggling solos have few rivals, Geoff Palmer's vibes and keyboards provide a melodic and rhythmic spark, and David, Jimmy, Tom and Mic are all equally impressive -- these guys really are an exceptional band.

I first saw the Sons in May, 1968 at the Santa Clara County Folk Rock Festival. Least known, and best band there. This would prove to be an enduring theme for them. Their original material and musicianship was always unparalled. But there was an intangible quality to their live shows, a vibe between the musicians and the audience, that created a power in the crowd with intensity I never experienced elsewhere. My sons, 18 and 15, were fascinated with 60's hippie music, and I took them to the Fillmore last year to see the Sons, to show them a real band. They were both listening to "Loosen Up Naturally" nonstop for months. One instructed his guitar teacher, "show me how to play like Terry Haggerty." Now, there's a compliment. The new CD, more than any Sons recording, captures the raw emotion and immensity of power they generate on stage, which somehow escaped their studio albums. They're tentatively scheduled to open for Huey Lewis in Concord on Oct. 16, 1998, and to play a New Year's Eve encore in Santa Rosa. Do yourself a favor. The CD is among the best live recordings I've ever heard. But seeing the Sons live is the real thing. What an inspiration to feel that sensation again; irrefutable proof that we can all improve with age...

They're back after 20 years! Big horns, the B-3, the vibes and Bill Champlin, perhaps the greatest blues/rock voice ever. Recorded "Live" 1/24/98 in Santa Rosa (a concert I attended for my 50th birthday) the recorded sound is an even better mix. The funk/blues/rock sound is better than ever. Geoff Palmer is a vibraphone virtuoso and Terry Haggerty's guitar work is still legendary. With Mic Gillete and Tom Saviano on horns. Favorites of mine - "Time Will Bring You Love" and "Follow Your Heart" plus classic favorites including "Get High" and "Freedom."

DON'T BE MISLED BY all these reviews written by long-time SONS fans. Bill Champlin and the SONS have that rare quality of creating "rabid" fans. These people bought the cd sight unseen, and loved it before it hit their speakers. Personally, I've been more than a little disapointed at various attempts from well-known bands of the sixties at making comebacks, usually with dismal results. I listened to this cd looking for rust and arthritic musicianship, really playing devil's advocate. After playing it all the way through, well...TEN TIMES, I was just SMILIN' They are still the SONS. They rock, they roll, they play the blues, do a few ballads that will find you in a trance, eyes brimming with tears and a cigarette lighter lit and raised in your hand. This is simply a FANTASTIC recording. The old material sounds fresh, (Black and Blue Rainbow, Misery Isn't Free, Rooftop, Freedom, especially) it makes you feel good all over, proud that you were in love with a music that doesn't sound corny and dated thirty years later. As good as this cd is, and I've left it on continuous play all day at work, with no complaints, it still doesn't really capture the live show I saw this band perform a year after this recording was made. They are simply DEVASTATING. I think they should make at least one live recording every year, and if you can actually listen to this and stay still in your seat, you should check yourself for vital signs. Buy the CD...GO SEE THIS BAND....It's money and time you won't find better spent.