B.B. King

Virtually every attempt to update the style of recordings of the great blues artists has been
horribly misconceived. Chuck Berry playing with the Steve Miller Band, Wolf and Muddy
being forced to record with idiot hard rock bands, Otis Rush and Freddie King having to
bear the weight of arrangements and production imposed on their music instead of coming
out of it–none of these sessions has been worth the time, effort and money that... More >

This begins inauspiciously, with introductions and a thrown-away "Every Day I Have the Blues" (compare Live at the Regal and weep), and ends dubiously, with the sappy show-closer "Please Accept My Love." In between B.B. socks home old hits as familiar as "Sweet Sixteen" and as worthy as "Darlin' You Know I Love You" with a tough intensity he rarely brings to the studio. I prefer the horn arrangements on the Kent originals, but the unpredictable grit with which he snaps off the guitar parts makes up for any lost subtlety. (Grade: A-)