![]() This song alone is worth the price of the album as Haycock’s slide guitar and Wood’s organ drive the tune home in fine fashion. Wood’s celeste and Haycock’s slide give the song a ‘Loan Me A Dime’ feel, with Haycock coming to dominate the tune’s sound as Duane Allman did on Boz Scaggs’ cover of the Fenton Robinson classic. The album’s tour de force is the nearly nine-minute band original ‘And Lonely’ which features Wood’s organ and harmonium intro and deeply echoed vocals by Cooper with Haycock’s slide guitar just underneath before he begins a slow burn guitar solo at the two minute mark. ![]() Band original ‘Looking For My Baby’ features an Elmore James inspired slide intro, with Wood’s piano supplementing Haycock’s fine slide guitar on the snappy number. A tasty cover of Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘How Many More Years’ features a piano intro, before Cooper’s mouth harp joins in along with Wood’s boogie woogie style piano. ![]() ‘A Stranger In Your Town’ co-written by Cooper and Lee Hazelwood is another prime Chicago blues song led by Haycock’s slide guitar, Cooper’s mouth harp and Holt, Jones and Newsome locked into a groove, once again rendering a John Mayall vibe. Side two opens with the band original ‘Twenty Past One’ the band returning to its Chicago blues roots with Haycock’s slide guitar and Wood’s piano dominating the sound. Side one of the album closes with the band’s take on Big Joe Turner’s blues shouter ‘Wee Wee Baby’ done gently,given a Canned Heat/John Mayall feel with lots of harp and acoustic guitars. A fine cover of Sonny Boy Williamson’s ‘Don’t Start Me To Talking’ features Haycock’s guitar leading the way to Cooper’s inevitable mouth harp work which do the tune’s writer justice. Another band original ‘You’ve Been Drinking’ is a shuffle style blues number, with Cooper’s vocals the center of attention and lead instrument. ‘Going Down This Road’ a band original carries on the traditional Chicago blues feel thanks to Haycock and Wood, who contributes piano and organ. ‘Insurance’ is a traditional Chicago electric blues style tune, with Haycock’s guitar and Wood’s piano to the fore. The album opens with ‘Mean Old World’ somehow credited to the band, featuring Colin Cooper’s mouth harp and wonderful slide guitar by Pete Haycock, whose solo takes center stage. Esoteric Records has compiled the group’s first five albums in a clamshell box set, supplementing the albums’ original 49 tunes with 18 bonus tracks, making this the definitive collection of the band during their earliest period.ġ969’s ‘The Climax Chicago Blues Band’ is a twelve track mix of band originals and well known blues standards. Climax Blues Band – ‘The Albums 1969-1972’ (2019) Formed in Stafford, England in 1967 by vocalist and harmonica player Colin Cooper, guitarist and vocalist Pete Haycock, guitarist Derek Holt, bassist and keyboardist Richard Jones, drummer George Newsome and keyboardist Arthur Wood, the band which came to prominence and commercial success in the mid-1970’s as the Climax Blues Band, began life as the Climax Chicago Blues Band, and their first several albums stayed true to their name. ![]()
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