Customer Reviews

One Foot in the Groove

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

 

 

I fell in love with Blues Rags and Hollers as soon as I heard it. It wasn't just the music, but the glimpses of these three men that you catch behind the music. Every time I pop in the cd, the stories start up in my head. This cd picks up thirty-odd years later, and the feeling is still there. The heart behind the music hasn't changed, although the voices have. Tony Glover's harp has gotten better, if anything, and Dave Ray's guitar is still shuffling along in some mystic other space. John Koerner? Why, he's just Spider John, till the day he dies... and after that, I'm sure.

This is a solid set from renowned performers who've improved like seasoned timber through the decades. Given their reputation as jocular raconteurs, I'm surprised that a little of their banter with the invited audience didn't make it onto the tapes. After all, it is a live recording, and yet there's something restrained about the air of the night, and even the performances. I hanker still for the elan of,'Music Is Just A Bunch Of Notes', and urge its release as a CD. All the covers are rejuvenated and Fred McDowell's,'You've Got To Move' is inspiring. Koerner's,'I ain't Blue, and Glover's,'Power Tool' demonstrate that their own material is at one with the traditional material. A continuing revelation with KR & G is the density of their playing. What they fit in 2.50 minutes is more potent than many artists achieve in twice the duration. These stories fan out in the mind; deltas of deeply lived feeling.