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October 3, 2014 by Simon Sweetman

Gary Clark Jr: Live

gary clark liveGary Clark Jr.

Live

Warner Bros.

I’ve just about never been as gutted as when I heard Gary Clark Jr’s debut studio album. Just awful. He had this rep – and there was loads of evidence, an earlier EP, YouTube clips, cameos, anecdotal evidence piled up; he was the man. The future of blues guitar, relevant today but with adherence to tradition – not just a posturing candy-coloured pretend-throwback….and then that album killed his momentum. It suffered because it had the life sucked out of it – he’d made a bad Lenny Kravitz record – something Lenny Kravitz has been more than capable of doing himself (and for most of his career).

So though a little worried on entry, news of a double live album seemed safe – and, you know, hopefully the playing wasn’t (just) safe. Gc

Well, I’m not sure if Clark Jr is the future of the blues – or if the blues even needs a future (as such) – but this is a whole different kettle; remarkable too for the fact that it features some of those same songs that seemed so lacklustre and – even, at times – downright hideous on Blak and Blu.

Here’s the proof that record was killed in the studio – the songs (none of them great) killed by the arrangements/production. Here Clark goes at it, leading his band, and we get thoughtful, exciting solos, loping bass lines and drums in support – it’s not all tinny and tiny and trying to pack a pop punch.

You can hear that he’s spent time listening to all manner of blues-related acts – from Allman-esque jam-bands all the way back to the kings – B.B. and Albert Collins are represented here, and obvious nods to Hendrix via a version of Third Stone From The Sun and even in the opening rendition of Robert Petway’s Catfish Blues.

It’s a different man – vociferous even. A whole different feel and sound and approach.
gary c
It’s what should – actually – have been his debut. But yeah, yeah, sure, it’s a hard-sell to front with a double-live album in this day and age. It’s been a long, long time since The Allman Brothers’ early peak.

But Live – the album – is the proof that those early stories and clips didn’t tell some nasty lie. The lie was that studio embarrassment. The fact that some of that material even stands up here – gets given the chance to soar, in fact – shows that a bird like Gary Clark Jr shouldn’t be caged.

Posted in Blog, Reviews and tagged with Albert Collins, Album Review, B.B. King, Blak And Blu, Blues, Blues Guitar, Gary Clark Jr, Guitar, Jimi Hendrix, Live, Live Concert. RSS 2.0 feed.
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One Response to Gary Clark Jr: Live

  1. Pingback: Gig Review: Gary Clark Jr. (March 29, Wgtn)

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