Fleetwood Mac "Rumours"

 

Fleetwood Mac "The Chain"

Alright, this here is an album I would have never seen my self ever listening to, or enjoying in a million years, but I have fallen in love with Fleetwood Mac recently. From Lindsey Buckingham's searing guitar leads, to his chunky acoustic rythms, and travis picking style, he is an incredibly under-appreciated guitar player, as well as vocalist.

The first song on this record is "Second Hand News" and is a very caribean style type of music, with a very relaxed style beat to it. I'm pretty sure I have actually heard this on a cruise before. Lindsey Buckingham's voice is very twangy, like a Fender Telecaster set to the bridge position. It is almost like reggae meets pop rock.

"Never Going Back Again" starts out with acoustic guitar very similiar to "Blackbird" by the Beatles. Another very pop rock song from the 70's that I have heard in at least 2 dozen commericials in my 17 and a half years of life. Lindsey Buckingham yet again shows his mastery over the instrument with his "travis picking" style, and very proffesional sounding vocals.

Another great and well known song on this album is "Go Your Own Way." The song is very soulful, and sung with an almost "Crosby, Stills and Nash" style vocals, except with two women and one male. One thing most people don't really realize while listening to Fleetwood Mac, is the fact that guitar player Lindsey Buckingham is more or less the lead singer while Stevie Nicks just kind of harmonizes with him on a few bits, but listening to this track will definately show you the leader of this band.

My personal favorite song on this album would have to be "The Chain." A song that I believe to be about divorce, has very soulful lyrics with a very folk style guitar. This is a song most people can relate to, especially when Mr. Buckingham sings "If you don't love me now, You will never love me again" and that verse alone strikes me deep in the heart. The drums are very soft and smooth on this song, and it shows that drummer Mick Fleetwood knows how to show restraint on his playing, and doesn't have to fly all over the place all the time.

"Oh Daddy" is another great song, and is very mellow and sweet. Stevie Nicks finally takes over on vocal duties. Lindsey shows off his very sharp acoustic playing, which compliments Ms. Nicks's vocals very well. Bass player John Mcvie shows off that playing complex and with soul, doesn't have to be fast, or even on a guitar for that matter.

The next song "Gold Dust Woman" has Stevie Nicks taking over on vocals yet again. The song is very folk and eery. With more CSNY style harmonies, the song is very powerful and doesn't fail to strike a chord with me. Midway through the song Mick Fleetwood exemplifies a jungle-istic style back beat indicating that the song will soon be having a build up. And never to let you down, as the drums build up, Lindsey starts to fade in with his electric guitar very heavily, but adding more eeriness to the song while he does so.

The last song on this album "Silver Springs" is another relaxing song. Very pop rock, and not something that I really care for too much. Not saying that I don't like it, it just sounds more like it would fit a teenage girl going through a break up rather than a teenage boy whose a blues aficionado.

 

Freddie King "Live At The Electric Ballroom, 1974"

 

 

 

"Live At The Electric Ballroom, 1974" is an album that starts out with King talking to an interviewer back stage, and doing some things Ive never really heard him do before, like playing acoustic guitar. As Freddie King is playing, inbetween songs he says over and over again "I'm not an acoustic guitar player" after he shows his mastery over songs such as "Dust My Broom" and "That's Alright."

 

The first electric song on this live album is "Big Legged Woman", but this version is very different from any of King's previous versions, because it has an extended jam session. Big Legged woman is a song that alway's brought a smile to my face with lyrics such as "I love the tip, I love the top, I love you better than a hog loves slop" and will surely bring a smile to any big legged women lovers out there.

 

 

The next song "Woman Across The River" has a very peculiar chord change up that I haven't really heard in blues music before, so this really makes this song more of a rock song than anything else. The song shows the influences King had over other guitar players yet to come such as Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and many, many others. King show cases his licks and flies all over the fretboard in ways that typically (excluding Hendrix) only white musicians of that era did.

 

"Key To The Highway" is a fast paced blues shuffle, with King throwing solo's in everywhere while the bass player thumps like hell. Excluding Freddie King himself, the real star of this song would have to be his bass player who plays intricate licks beneathe Freddie's creating an interesting sound.

 

"Let The Good Times Roll" is a Jimi Hendrix cover with a funky back beat to it. This is one of those moments where the pupil influenced the master, instead of the other way. On Freddie's version of this song, he slows it down quite a bit, and adds a more funky taste to it, with more solos as well. Roughly half way through, King throws a few vocal harmonies into the mix, and the crowd screams back in acceptance. Another thing King did that I loved was when he yelled out to the crowd "When I yell Let it Roll, you guys yell back Baby let the good times Roll" and of course the crowd played along with it, making it a fun experience for everyone.

 

 

The next song "Ain't Nobody's Business" is a slow blues jam in minor. Right from the get go, King starts talking to the audience making the concert very personable. He talks about who he thinks wrote the song, and the big names who showed him the song along the way. Soon after he speaks with the crowd he starts pouring his soul into every note he played. Just relentlessly, putting his soul into the instrument, and out into the crowd. His gospel style singing is also shown in the song, as he tells everyone how one day he cam be rich and the next day poor, and it Ain't Nobody's Business but his own.

 

 

The next song is one of my favorites, (and President Obama's) and it is called "Sweet Home Chicago." The song starts out with a slow blues shuffle, with piano soloing over it slowly, as Freddie takes a back seat on his guitar playing in this song while his vocals soar. The slow blues shuffle progresses for quite some time, until King takes over with his seering guitar leads, and the full band kicks in. After the band kicks in, it's about another 6 minutes of pure jamming.

 

Sweet Home Chicago

 

One of the last songs on this great album is an electric version of a song King did earlier in the album, "Dust My Broom" during this song it sounds as if King is playing lead while an unidentifyed 2nd guitarist plays slide in the background. This song is essentially the same thing he did earlier, just electric and with a full band.

 

The last song on this album is a medley of King's most famous song "Hideaway." This song is an instrumental jam, full of power from everybody in the band. A very more modern version of his early 60's classic. The song soon moves out of Hideaway, and quickly turns to a blues shuffle, and then soon after into another one of Freddie's jamming instrumentals, Boogie Funk. The transitions between each song during this medley are seamless, and to the untrained ear would sound like one giant jam.

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

Albert King "Live Wire/Blues Power"

 

                                                                    The King himself


Albert King is one of the most un-heard of guitar players, but one of the biggest names in blues. He has a vast catalog of albums spanning from early 1954, to the post humous albums still being released today in his memory. I've had the pleasure of meeting various people who commonly associated themselves with the blues master when he was here on this earth, such as his guitar technician and luthier Dan Erlewine. Dan told me a multitude of stories about the King, everything from how he built his guitars, to how passionate of a person he was. All of this shows in his live recording "Live Wire/Blues Power" where he demonstrates his mastery over his custom flying V.



"Watermelon Man" the first song off this album. The instrumental starts out with a nice slow "50's esque" kind of swing with guitar solo's peeking there head's around every corner. Albert King shows his love of the penatonic scale in this song, with his fingers flying all over the fretboard. About half way through the song, Mr. King greets the audience to ask them how they're doing and laughs with excitement for the show to come.

The next song, and title track of the album "Blues Power" is a nice slow jam session, full of slow soulful vibrato from his voice and guitar. One reason I really like this song is Albert explains why everyone can understand the blues, with examples from babys all the way up to teenagers and older people. If you haven't listened to the blues yet, this would definately be a good first song to listen to, because it really explains how the genre is universal, and how it can be applied to everybody. Lyrically, this is one of my all time favorite songs.

The third song "Night Stomp" is another 50's style blues shuffle, very similiar to watermelon man, but a lot faster. The difference between the two, is the rythm section is driven much more hard in this song than the previous. The song will change from fast and shredding, to soft and subtle, and also with intricate stops throughout the entire song.



"Blues at Sunrise" is a slow blues jam that Albert King had played with the big names, such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Every single note Albert puts forth is full of soul and vibrato. The lyrics are also pretty good as well, telling that we can all relate to about a man who can't find his woman, and thinks she may be out partying with other guys. This song proves Albert's statement in blues power is right, the blues are universal.

"Please Love Me" is a great medium tempo'd blues shuffle, with intricate bass work, and Albert showing his "texas side" with Chuck Berry style riffs similiar to his very famous song, Johnny B. Goode. King shows his very powerful voice in this song, forcing out in what sounds like a vibrato machine, every single soulful note. He adds an element of swing to the song as well with his guitar playing.




"Look Out" is the closing song on this album, and is another instrumental. Personally, the only flaw I find with this album is that this song was used to close it instead of open it. Is it a good song? Yes, but it is not a very strong. I like my music the way I like my meatballs, with such a strong bite that it leaves my mouth hurting for a couple of days. In my personal opinion, since the album is titles "Blues Power" that the song Blues Power would have been a very strong closer, since it was the best song on the album.