Recorded live at the WC Handy festival in Kentucky circa June 1999 comes this very up tempo CD. The introductory track morphs through Buzz Me, a guitardominated second introduction which in turn morphs into the song made famous by Freddie King, the classic Going Down. Sounding not unlike Walter Trout on guitar Bernard and the band take the song by the scruff of the neck and give it a thorough shaking!

Full of energy and with Bernard's gruff vocals the offering is utterly fabulous. He seems to have a very full backing band around him, hence the very full sound. Bernard's songs are also mini-epics; they go on for quite some time! I love it!

The band continues straight into a wonderful emotional Chicago-style blues by the title of Bad Blues. Not to be confused with an Eric Clapton song of a similar name, this fine blues has Bernard's superbly gritty voice, the beautiful Hammond style keyboards of Mike Vlahakis and Trevor Newman of a very mean trumpet. It's a tremendous production.

Bernard's illustrious father's composition, Life Is A Bitch has some nice riffs without question. Bernard sings his late father's songs with ease and it's nice to see they are being kept alive. The long bends in the guitar solo are a joy to hear. This song morphs into another soul influenced composition by Luther Allison's pen. The title is Midnight Creeper and is a laid back easy-listening track including some nice brass from Richard Martinez on trombone.

Buddy Guy's Leave My Girl Alone has a fabulous intro and is in the Stevie Ray Vaughan style….wow…..what a very acceptable mixture! Bernard is a very special guitarist and after the intro he speaks to the audience, telling them of his dedication to Stevie Ray and Albert King with this song. (We know Stevie and Albert were joined at the hip though don't we!) The song is again of epic proportions with some excellent piano and well metered rhythm from Jeff Hayes bass and Craig Panosh on drums.

A fast slide intro to Johnny Winter's Good Time Woman showcases Bernard's versatility on the guitar. As the song goes on he continues with this style and in fact reminds me of a very famous Irish guitarist with the initials RG!

This last track fades out very abruptly and is slightly disappointing because of that but don't let this put you off this CD. It is only eight tracks long but they are long tracks! This is another good release on the RUF Records label and one I've enjoyed reviewing.

Steve Lally ©