Customer Reviews

Long As I Have You

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

 

 

John Hammond delivers a well-rounded set of his interpretations of a who's who of classic blues masters on "Long As I Have You." He neither strays too far from the originals nor tries to exceed his own range----which is considerable----so the tunes here sound both fresh and natural.

In something of a departure, Mr. Hammond handles only the vocals on the first dozen tracks, and Little Charlie and the Mudcats adeptly handle all the instruments with zest and taste, striking the right tone without sounding harsh and strident, which is a flaw in too many modern blues bands.

For the final three tracks, which are all stripped-down bare bones blues, Mr. Hammond adds guitar and harmonica to his vocals with only a washboard to flesh out the sound.

I'm glad that we have Mr. Hammond hard at work delivering his common-sense, well-honed take on the blues. Though this session does not invite frequent, repeated listenings, it's worth having.

If you like the Blues ..This is the Blues at its Best..John Hammond takes on Just vocals for the first 12 Tracks.The band
Little Charlie and the NightCats who Hammond has worked with before takes on all instruments and they play with great integrity and fine solo's throughout.Hammond fronts the band with his incredible vocals his voice has aged well like all the great blues men and he sounds more convincing and soulful than ever.The selections are not the old war horses,which is good, but chooses more esoteric selections by the great blues writers.The last 3 tracks are just Hammond and his Guitar and Harmonica and a Washboard player are the Blues as you would expect from this artist.
Hammond self produced the album ..the sound is slightly dull but the mix is just fine and all in all ..well done..

I have never been a big fan of John Hammond Jr. I have always heard and read how great he is, but CD after CD purchase I always hear him forcing the vocal inflections to the point of sillyness like current pop blues diva Jonny Lang. However, this is actually a decent release from JH. Maybe ageing of the vocal chords has something to do with it. On almost all of the tracks, JH opts to let Little Charlie & The Nightcats back him while dealing only with the vocals...and it works! I can now say I am a John Hammond fan.

Got this cd right after seeing JH live, and all the excitement of his performance comes through on disc. No one puts more into their performance. If you love the blues, this is a must-have cd. Enjoy!

I bought this 11 years after the release but it made no difference. It's a collection of classic tunes from a classic artist. So this is a CD I can listen to, put up, and then discover again in a month, year, or decade.

Several tunes could be put on mt "desert island compilation" with no hesitation.

I've always dug John Hammond on previous albums. Recently I heard him "live in the studio" on NPR and he sounded so good--down home vocals (not pushing too hard)and yowza cutting edge guitar--that I rushed out to get this album, thinking it was his latest and would capture what I had just heard. Boy was I disappointed. This release is canned and kind of dull, more like background blues (if there is such a thing) than in your face honest to goodness blues. Not laid back, just plain old blah. I'm still a fan but I'm going to trade this one in.