You have to give the late guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughan's rhythm section credit for perseverance. Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding, the rhythm section of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, never took it upon themselves to continue as a recording entity after their leader's passing. Of course, Double Trouble is buoyed on Been A Long Time by a host of famous friends who offer impassioned performances to occupy Vaughan's vacated frontman spot.
Bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton are as rock-solid here as they ever were backing up their erstwhile leader. They don't spend much time looking back, either. Been A Long Time isn't really a blues album - rather, it's a bluesy rock album with a decidedly contemporary edge that owes little to Vaughan's sound…
The companion volume to the hugely successful first ‘Best Of’, with yet more excellent highlights from 15 years of bassist/bandleader Bill Wyman’s post-Stones musical project, sampling six key albums. Includes standout tracks from studio and stage, where the Rhythm Kings are in their element. Numerous special guests include Albert Lee, Georgie Fame, Procol Harum’s Gary Brooker and former colleague Mick Taylor on slide guitar (‘Can’t Get My Rest At Night’). A re-cut of the Stones’ ‘Melody’ – originally from the ‘Black And Blue’ album on which Bill appeared – features Eric Clapton, while George Harrison guests on ‘Love Letters’. A lively cover of the Beatles’ ‘Taxman’ features Australian guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel. Specially released to coincide with Autumn 2012 Rhythm Kings European dates. Expertly remastered by Jon Astley (whose past credits include recordings by the Who, Led Zeppelin, George Harrison and many others). Superb sound – the best in the business!
When it comes to good time R&B played by top class musicians, you can’t beat the sound of Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings. After Bill quit the Rolling Stones in 1993, the bass player set about forming his own all-star band. As well as touring the world, the Rhythm Kings released a succession of fine albums, beginning with ‘Struttin’ Our Stuff’ in 1998. We have selected the hottest tracks from this debut album, as well as songs from subsequent albums ‘Anyway The Wind Blows’, ‘Double Bill’, ‘Groovin’ and ‘Just For A Thrill’.
Founding Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman essentially retired from music after leaving the band in 1993, choosing to dedicate time to his family and his restaurant, Sticky Fingers. He returned to music in 1997 with Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, a rotating old-time rock & roll, R&B, blues, and boogie collective of superstar musicians anchored by keyboardist Georgie Fame, guitarist Albert Lee, pianist Gary Brooker, and guitarist Terry Taylor. Their first album, Struttin' Our Stuff, appeared that year and it was followed two years later by Anyway the Wind Blows, which featured cameos from Peter Frampton, Geraint Watkins, Paul Carrack, and, notably, fellow Stone Keith Richards.
Back Up Against the Wall is the second album by the southern rock band Atlanta Rhythm Section, released in 1973. It is the first album to feature Ronnie Hammond on lead vocals…
Founding Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman essentially retired from music after leaving the band in 1993, choosing to dedicate time to his family and his restaurant, Sticky Fingers. He returned to music in 1997 with Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, a rotating old-time rock & roll, R&B, blues, and boogie collective of superstar musicians anchored by keyboardist Georgie Fame, guitarist Albert Lee, pianist Gary Brooker, and guitarist Terry Taylor. Their first album, Struttin' Our Stuff, appeared that year and it was followed two years later by Anyway the Wind Blows, which featured cameos from Peter Frampton, Geraint Watkins, Paul Carrack, and, notably, fellow Stone Keith Richards. Groovin' arrived in 2000, reaching a career peak of 52 on the U.K. charts. Next was Double Bill in 2001 and Just for a Thrill in 2004, before the band primarily dedicated itself to live performances. A pair of these were featured on the live albums Rhythm Kings Live (2005) and Live Communication (2011), but it took them until 2017 to deliver a new studio album with Rocking the Roots.
Atlanta Rhythm Section, sometimes abbreviated ARS, is an American southern rock band. The band unofficially formed in 1970 as former members of the Candymen and the Classics IV became the session band for the newly opened Studio One, Doraville in Doraville, Georgia…
Epic/Legacy expanded Stevie Ray Vaughan’s second album Couldn’t Stand the Weather in 1999, adding four outtakes and an interview excerpt to the eight-track original, but the 2010 Legacy Edition expands it further still, retaining those four cuts, adding four songs from the posthumous compilation The Sky Is Crying (“Empty Arms,” “Wham!,” “Close to You,” “Little Wing”) along with three previously unreleased alternate takes (“The Sky Is Crying,” “Stang’s Swang,” “Boot Hill”), and a full, unreleased concert SRV & Double Trouble gave at the Spectrum in Montreal on August 17, 1984. Apart from “Empty Arms” and “Stang’s Swang,” every studio outtake is a cover, underscoring how Vaughan spent much of Couldn’t Stand the Weather drawing from his influences and synthesizing them into his own voice, and their addition actually strengthens the album considerably. With that in mind, the lively concert on the second disc is a bonus treat, evidence that SRV & Double Trouble were flying very high during 1984 and one of the better complete live sets in Vaughan’s discography.