Gary Clark Jr. - The Live Album
Gary Clark Jr is a rising Texan blues artist and this 2 Disc album is his defining moment, a generous blast of talent that shows the future of blues guitar.
His breaking ground performance at the 2010 Crossroads festival, secured him a place as support for Eric Clapton’s tours in subsequent years, and has had rapturous reviews by many plaudits since.
With this ‘Live’ album, he has produced a fine fifteen song performance that shows where is really at home, feeding from an audience, and presenting Clark’s music as it was meant to be heard. Not as an ego booster or fulfilling a record contract that required one more release.
Clark’s unique brand of psychedelic blues is a sound that is meant to be heard raw and in your face, a six-string gunslinger who feeds off the intensity of the moment and is prone to improvisation.
The album opens with an aggressive cover of the Delta blues standard “Catfish Blues,” Clark’s distorted deep string bends giving the song a real menacing quality, and sets a tone for the delights to come.
Next up, is the rumbling twelve bar, "Next Door Neighbour Blues" which, with its slide guitar and rambling pace, will remind somewhat of both the Black Keys and the White Stripes.
“Travis County” brings a supercharged Chuck Berry style boogie, Clark then brings out a masterpiece of incendiary, grungy lead guitar of "When My Train Pulls In". This impeccably blends past and present, at times taking tradition and handling it with care, love, and a welcome dash of irreverence.
On the next track, an up tempo, swampy finger picking "Don't Owe You a Thang", Clark revelling in the audience energy with whoops and hollers!
Clark now slows things down with another cover of a blues classic “Three O’clock Blues”. Delivered perfectly, it pays tribute to the genre's roots with a traditional rendition, with more than a nod to B.B. King, and features superb playing (and fantastic support from second guitarist Eric “King” Zapata) and some ‘so-laid-back-he’s-almost- horizontal’ vocal styling that quickly become addictive.
“Things Are Changing” brings a more restrained and soulful croon, and injects jarring solos into the warm-bath R&B style song.
Now the audience is wound up by the sublime “Numb”! Featuring once more some metallised and tasty, dirty slide guitar, of ‘King’ Zapata. It crawls through the swamp and explodes into a demolition of every blues cliché which those shades and fedora wearing wannabes have been milking for years.
CD2 opens with a driving rhythm reminiscent of Spencer Davis Group – Keep On Running, and guitar licks of The Tornados – Telstar. An upbeat vocal combine to give a vibrant performance of Ain’t Messin ‘Round.
Clark now slows the pace, with a deep Texas Blues version of Albert Collins’ – “If Trouble Was Money”. Attacking the Epiphone fretboard with more than a passing nod to Stevie Ray Vaughn. Almost suggesting, “Yes you may know the song, but you don’t know this version”.
Now comes a great medley / mashup of the almost uncoverable Hendix-“Third Stone From The Sun”, and Albert Collins-“If You love Me Like You Say”. A blistering rendition and driving rhythms laid down by bassist Johnny Bradley and drummer Johnny Radelat. Bradley gets the chance of a small solo, treating us to the baseline of Korn’s – Freak On A Leash! Clark cuts in with his own trademark unique style and virtuosity. Old school “scratching” on a guitar string! The songs are stretched out with improvised guitar solos and riffs, but are much, much more than just a guitar hero tutorial lesson. A great song, which you can hear really starts to wind up the audience.
Clarke now slows things down again, with his own composition, a sombre “Please Come Home,” Clark’s normal baritone swapped for a sultry falsetto, this bookending his usual shredding, the meat, in tasty blues sandwich.
“Blak n Blue” the title song from his debut album comes next in this Live album. It shows that in Clark’s hands, nothing is really “standard”. He performs it solo, which these days is a rare achievement, using dead-beat menace, pushing past exhaustion into insolence. It’s just one man, one instrument, one voice and several thousand spellbound fans.
Next a crowd pleasing “Bright Lights”, this latest version shows that only a handful of players can pick up an electric guitar and make these sorts of sounds happen. Eight plus spellbinding minutes of a master class in psychedelic trance blues, that illustrates the enduring threat of gracefully fired notes mixed in with creamy distortion.
The album closes, with Clarke back to his most vulnerable best. The set encore “When The Sun Goes Down”. Clark alone on stage, delivering vocals with a smooth vibrato over clean, finger-picked guitar, complimented by harmonica fills. This gig-closer draws the crowd to another level of intimacy, and that is shared, nevertheless faintly , by listeners of the CD.
Never can a live album accurately mimic the feeling being there to see a concert in person, but Clark’s Live album is one that delivers on the promise of his studio releases. If Blues music is a relay race, then there is no better young person, ready to take hold of the batton, and carry it forward into the 21st Century.
Find out more and buy the album at www.garyclarkjr.com
