Live AT San Quentin

Prison performances are sort of a standard for blues singers, and it just doesn't get any better than this - B.B. King playing his classics live at the San Quentin Correctional facility. Here King is playing to a truly captive audience offering up such classics as "The Thrill is Gone," "Sweet 16," "In the Heat of the Night," and "Nobody Loves Me But My Mother." In the intro to that last selection King explains to the inmates that while the blues was not just about hard times, some of the tunes could be pretty depressing. "Some of it can be pretty down alley. Like I'm fixing to do right now. I'm going all the way down to the bottom." Yet he also encourages the audience to go on and boogie off some of the uptempo tracks. This is music from the heart, and you can just feel the soul of the artist…

While Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, the 1968 album that made Cash a household word, spent only two weeks at No. 1, this 1969 follow-up topped the charts for 20 weeks. As with Folsom, the San Quentin LP had to be edited due to space limitations. Now, 31 years after the fact, the show can at last be heard in true perspective. All the original performances hold up, including the album's hit single: Shel Silverstein's "A Boy Named Sue," presented unbleeped for the first time. Equally impressive are the eight restored tracks and unexpurgated between-song patter. Cash's opening renditions of "Big River" and "I Still Miss Someone" are bracing. So are four closing songs teaming Cash with his complete performing troupe (the Carter Family, Carl Perkins, and the Statler Brothers). Their gospel performances ("He Turned the Water into Wine," "The Old Account," and an early version of "Daddy Sang Bass") are electrifying, as is a concluding medley featuring everyone. Cash is presented here at his roaring, primal best.

This unusual compilation from the Kool Jazz at Midem Festival combines parts of three separate sets. The Dave Brubeck Quartet with clarinetist Bill Smith, bassist Chris Brubeck and drummer Randy Jones, has the most interesting program, utilizing an electronic delay along with Smith's clarinet to add a new touch to "Lover Man," offering an energetic version of "Blue Rondo a la Turk" and introducing a recent work by Brubeck, the very swinging "Ol' Bill Basie" which showcases some fine playing by the leader and some choice bass trombone by son Chris. Guitarist Pat Metheny joins the Heath Brothers for "Move To The Groove; " Metheny's bluesy guitar and Jimmy Heath's soulful tenor sax work well together. B. B. King's set is at best average and an odd choice to include on what is predominantly a jazz record.

Johnny Cash - Koncert V Praze - In Prague Live (2016) {Columbia 88875169582 rec 1978}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 275 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 106 Mb
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© 1978, 2016 Columbia / Sony Music | 88875169582
Country / Traditional Country

For decades, the only way to enjoy Johnny Cash live in your home was on his two arguably finest albums, both recorded at penitentiaries; At Folsom Prison and At San Quentin. Since they are established classics, the argument can be made there really wasn’t a need for more. That has changed as labels dig ever deeper to mine material from legends like Cash from their vaults. It has resulted in no less than two recent concert recordings from Cash; Man in Black:Live in Denmark 1971 released in early December last year and now this show, recorded in Czechoslovakia circa 1978. Add these to 2003’s A Concert Behind Prison Walls, Johnny Cash at Madison Square Garden (a 1969 date finally seeing the light of day in 2002), and 2011’s 53 track Bootleg Vol lll:Live Around the World. And that’s just for starters. Considering how much he performed, it’s likely more are on the way.