Watch Your Back

Guitar Shorty | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 27, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Alligator Records
• ASIN: B0001XAMTA
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #70,235 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #46 in Music > Blues > Regional Blues > West Coast Blues

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 3 3/4 stars. Gritty electric blues from a grizzled veteran, October 3, 2004

By 

Docendo Discimus (Vita scholae) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Watch Your Back (Audio CD)

Born David William Kearney in 1939, Texan Guitar Shorty first recorded in 1957, yet this is only the 6th album for Jimi Hendrix's former brother-in-law (well, he married Hendrix's stepsister).

Kearney's career has had its shares of highs and lows (and sometimes the lows were very low, too), but since he was picked up by JSP in 1990 he has delivered a handful of albums which rank from good to great, and this is one of the best ones.
"Watch Your Back" is a really tough record...Shorty's fiery, fat-toned guitar playing is not unlike Stevie Ray Vaughan's, and he delivers these ten songs with utter conviction. There is nothing here as instantly memorable as the best work of Muddy Waters or Howlin' Wolf, sure, but that's pretty much a given, I suppose, and there are a lot of really good songs here even without an obvious replacement for "Hoochie Coochie Man".

Opening with one of the best ones, the gruff, muscular "Old School", "Watch Your Back" is excellently produced by Shorty's pianist Jesse Harms (formerly of REO Speedwagon). No frills, no gloss and glitter, just forty minutes of rowdy, smouldering blues, and Shorty rips into each blazing song, slow grind or up-tempo boogie, with equal enthusiasm.
Highlights include "I'm Gonna Leave You", an intense slow blues, the gritty swagger of "It Ain't The Fall That Kills You", the funky "What She Don't Know", a tough-as-nails rendition of "A Little Less Conversation", the driving "Let's Get Busy", and "Let My Guitar Do The Talking", a powerful mid-tempo number with a charging Bo Diddley beat.
Fans of so-called "modern electric blues" will want a listen, and those new to David William Kearney can start here.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Guitar Shorty burns!, July 20, 2004

By 

Richard Rosenthal - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Watch Your Back (Audio CD)

If you love hard electric blues, this album will blow you away. I'm a guitar player, and listening to "Watch Your Back" is like hearing a living encyclopedia of great blues licks. Guitar Shorty could play circles around guys half his age...get this album!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Shorty, September 11, 2004

By 

David G. Lucas (Tsukuba Japan, Chicago IL, Milwaukee WI, Monroe WI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Watch Your Back (Audio CD)

"Let My Guitar Do the Talking" is a great Guitar Shorty theme; his guitar smokes, chats, laughs a whole lot, and tells a great story of the history of rock & blues. Another great CD by this living legend. His vocals are hit and miss, but you'll buy this one for the guitar and never regret it. I recommend, however, that you skip the combo-sale with Johnny Winter above. It's JW's weakest work; he is sadly fading away. Be sure to check other Winter albums though--in fact, they're all good hard-rocking blues besides this newest one (he never could really sing well, but this one has no energy). If this is your first time to hear about Johnny Winter because you just came here for the Guitar Shorty (can't go wrong with Shorty), then check out Johnny Winter And. That's Rocking.