Search - JUNIOR WELLS : BLUES LEGENDS on DVD

Junior Wells and Buddy Guy in the 1980s

Perry Celestino | Tahmoor, NSW Australia | 09/09/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the new offering from Blues Legends. Previously they have issued DVDs on Freddie King, Albert King and Memphis Slim with Sonny Boy Williamson. This concert is set at a place called Nightstage and they perform for 71 minutes. Footage of Buddy Guy as a younger player and concerts of Buddy with Junior Wells during their extended partnership are rather scarce. They have several snippets of material on other discs, the best being the now unavailable "Muddy Waters at Montreux" show. However, part of this show is on the Buddy Guy DVD with his Boxed Set released last year.

The concert here is a video transfer as you would expect and the sound is excellent. It begins with Buddy Guy coming on and offering only part of his recorded performance. We have seen some of this set previously on the Buddy Guy DVD from the Boxed Set. Buddy does a part of "The Things I Used To Do", "Crazy About You", "Stormy Monday" and playing like T-Bone Walker. This is the only big flaw in this presentation. The entire show should have been reproduced. Anyway, what we have is rare and good. Buddy plays in his usual style and with his thinline Guild guitar.

Buddy offers "Look Over Yonder Wall" a funky "Crazy About You" with him playing over the top of the guitar's neck and "I Just Want To Make Love To You" as a tribute to his mentor Muddy Waters. Junior is then introduced and comes out to play Little Walter's "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" and a tribute to Muddy Waters as well ending with "Trouble No More", great classic Chicago Blues.

When Junior joined Muddy Waters Band as a youngster he replaced Little Walter, what shoes to fill! Walter had recorded his masterpiece "Juke" and left the band. Junior offers us a version of "Juke" in this show. It, unfortunately, is a big disappointment. At this stage in their career, I feel, both Wells and Guy were well known and accepted. They were more intent on showmanship and not musicianship. However, the material on these people are so hard to get we have to give it 5 stars (like the Albert King program in this series-see my review)

The boys then go on to Sonny Boy Williamson's "My Younger Days" and the Chicago classic "I Got My Mojo Working" which are fine performances. Junior ends the set with a James Brown tribute. This is something he always did. When I saw him in Sydney in 1991 he opened with "I Got You (I Feel Good) in a bright yellow suit looking and sounding and dancing like James Brown! Here Junior offers "Super Bad" and then right into "I Got You (I Feel Good)". A very sound ending to the show.

The bonus features are good, but the interview is hard to hear due to the background noise in the club. And it goes on for a long time! The bonus performances however are excellent and include "Little By Little" (not the Rolling Stones tune) from the main performance (see there are extra tracks we did not get!) and then from a place called "The Channel" in Boston we hear "Better Than I Love Myself" which, to me, is one of the best tracks on the whole DVD. Note: The DVD cover is wrong "Little By Little" is not at the Channel Club, it's at the original concert venue Nightstage.

OK this Blues Legends offering is great. We need as much material on these real innovators as we can possibly get. It would be so fantastic to see T-Bone Walker anywhere but he had a PBS concert with Shuggy Otis and his father in about 1975, Magic Sam at Ann Arbor, Albert King at the Fillmore, B.B. King at the Cafe Au Go Go, Little Walter, and so many more. I hope this series will continue! These people have also given us the excellent "American Folk Blues Festivals" series as well. Currently we are waiting eagerly for the Howlin' Wolf concert due to be released in October."

GOOD EARLY BLUES

K. knight | OCEANSIDE, CA | 09/09/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"THIS DVD IS A SAMPLING OF THE KIND OF BLUES CLUB WORK THAT MADE THESE GUYS LEGENDS.IT'S RAW NATURE IS CAUGHT HERE BUT WITH SOME DRAWBACKS.THE VIDEO AND AUDIO QUALITY ARE MARGINAL AT BEST.THE SOUND SOMETIMES FADES IN AND OUT WHICH IS ANNOYING FOR ME. THE VIDEO QUALITY IS AVERAGE AT BEST WITH SOMETIMES SHARP IMAGES THEN SOFT.TO REALLY ENJOY THIS SHOW, YOU WOULD HAVE HAD TO HAVE BEEN THERE WITH THE ADDITION OF A FEW DRINKS TO SMOOTH OUT THE ROUGH SPOTS.THESE GUYS ARE SOME OF MY FAVORITE BLUESMEN BUT THIS SHOW DOES NOT DO THEM JUSTICE. ONLY FOR THE HARDCORE BLUES LOVERS"