Luther Allison - Live in Chicago

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Music Review: Luther Live @ Chicago Blues Fest
Rating: 5 Stars

Absent from the American blues scene for many years, Allison crossed the Atlantic in 1994 to retake stateside audiences by storm and promote his then-new Alligator Records release, "Soul Fixin' Man." I was one of the lucky ones in the audience when Luther rocked the house @ Buddy Guy's Legends. I was a freelance writer at that time, and my notes of that gig read something like this:

"Around 9:45pm on Friday June 10th, seismic monitoring stations as far south as Joplin, Missouri reported tremors registering as high as 5.1 on the Richter Scale. Small boats on Lake Michigan were swamped by huge waves....politicians, fearing that The End had come, repented and gave spontaneous confessions of perfidy to tabloid reporters....Christians fell to their knees and praised God, shouting "The Rapture is here!"....others cowered like dogs and wept bitterly, knowing themselves damned....and fearing a massive rupture along the New Madrid fault line, the National Guards of Illinois, Iowa and Missouri were nearly mobilized before anyone realized -- it was just Luther Allison tuning up."

It was wall to wall and floor to rafter with stone-drunk blues fans (most of which still hadn't sobered up from the Bluesfest) when Allison and his wrecking crew took the stage, playing with total abandon and whipping the house into a frenzy with two sets that were marked by long winding solos and incendiary guitar work. The fact that Legends still stands after Allison's earth-shaking performance is some kind of tribute to Chicago building codes.

Sitting at the bar taking it all in were Buddy Guy and the father-son double whammy of Lonnie & Ronnie Brooks. There was much speculation in the crowd that one or more might join Allison onstage, but such hopes never materialized -- and Luther didn't seem to need any help anyway, except maybe someone to hose him down every half hour or so.

All too soon, the lights went up, the band stepped down and all that was left to do was to go outside and watch an unidentified taxi driver hose down several panhandlers with a super-soaker watergun....I walked to the bus stop, feeling the last rumbling echoes fade, knowing that, for sure, I had been in the presence of greatness.

This is Luther Allison live, in his element, at the very height of his considerable talent. This recording belongs in any serious blues collection.

Description of Live in Chicago

Blues CDs

• Music > Styles
• Pop
• Rock