[rating=7.00]
Who exactly does Gary Clark Jr. think he is, releasing a double-disc live album after only three full-length studio albums? Isn’t a double live album supposed to be reserved for musical legends and those with extensive catalogs from which to pull? Clark’s live album, simply called Live, doesn’t fit into that mold because it’s a different kind of album. This live album isn’t about ego or fulfilling a record contract that required one more release; it’s about presenting Clark’s music as it was meant to be heard.
Clark’s unique brand of psychedelic blues is a sound that is meant to be heard raw and in your face. His studio albums, though great, only convey a hint of the soulful experience people describe when recounting one of Clark’s concerts. In an era of Pro Tools and Auto Tune, Clark is a throwback – a six-string gunslinger who feeds off the intensity of the moment and is prone to improvisation. Live is the almost-perfect medium for Clark’s music, a live album that has the intensity of garage punk and the soul of a sit-down performance by B.B. King.
The fifteen-song performance includes Clark originals – including favorites like “Numb,” “Bright Lights,” and “Black and Blu” – as well as blues standards, though in Clark’s hands nothing is really standard. Kicking the set off is an aggressive cover of Muddy Waters’ “Catfish Blues,” Clark’s distorted deep string bends giving the song a menacing quality. Clark’s many talents are on display on Live. He attacks the Epiphone fretboard with blistering solos on songs like “Don’t Owe You a Thang” and dials it back for a restrained soul croon and clean guitar tone for tracks like “Things Are Changing.”
With his fuzzed-out guitar virtuosity, Clark has often been compared to Jimi Hendrix. Clearly Clark is not put off by the comparison, as his cover of “Third Stone From the Sun” in a medley with Albert Collins’ “If You Love Me Like You Say” shows. Most of the show features songs stretched out with improvised guitar solos, but Live is more than just a guitar hero tutorial. The faster songs are anchored by the hefty rhythms laid down by bassist Johnny Bradley and drummer Johnny Radelat. When the band slows things down, Clark’s underrated songwriting takes center stage, as on the somber “Please Come Home,” Clark’s normal baritone eschewed for a sultry falsetto.
After tearing through a raucous rendition of “Bright Lights,” Clark and company end the concert with their most stripped-down song. “When the Sun Goes Down” finds Clark onstage alone, singing in a smooth vibrato over clean, finger-picked guitar, accompanied with harmonica fills. The concert-closer draws the crowd into a climactic level of intimacy, one that is shared, though ever so slightly, by listeners of the CD. No live album can accurately recreate the feeling of actually being there to see the concert in person, but Clark’s Live is a solid album that delivers on the promise of his studio releases.
top photo by Vikas Nambiar
