Bootleg Review: Roy Buchanan’s Telecaster Country (1999)

SOURCE: Radio broadcast on WLIR-FM, live from My Father’s Place in Roslyn, New York; August 17, 1973.

SOUND QUALITY: Good FM broadcast (6-7) with some hollow, cavern feel to it. When Buchanan hits the high notes on his Fender Telecaster, though, they ring clear as a bell.

COVER: Four-color, four-panel insert with picture of a young Buchanan on front cover playing his beloved axe, a sepia-toned pic of Roy in the studio with guitar in hand on rear of insert. Inside offers excerpt of Guitar Player mag interview with the artist while back cover shows a much older Buchanan and offers tracklist and venue information.

TRACKLIST: I Can Fly Now/ C.C. Rider (listed here as “See See Rider”)/ Susie Q/ Hey Joe/ Blinda Lou/ Johnny B. Goode/ Bad Case Of The Blues/ Green Onions/ Pete’s Blues/ You Don’t Own Me       

COMMENTS: Since editor Bill tossed this musical hand grenade in my lap, I handled the crisis as best as I could. You see, in my ignorance, I knew little about Roy Buchanan other than his name and the occurrence of his tragic death. I was uninitiated in the wonderful legacy that this Telecaster maestro left behind in his wake and therefore had to dig up every scrap of info that I could on the artist. Thanks to Big Joe at Rossi’s Record Room in Brentwood TN, I acquired copies of Buchanan’s first two albums; later a copy of Sweet Dreams: The Anthology, a two-CD retrospective of Buchanan’s work fell into my lap. I was ready to tackle “Darth” Glahn’s review assignment with the proper tools to do the job.

Buchanan’s story, for those of you as blind as I once was, is classic blues material all the way. Born in Arkansas, raised in the California desert, Buchanan grew up in the Pentecostal Church of God, his father a fire and brimstone preacher. He often attended revivals with members of the area’s black church and, falling in love with gospel music, the blues and African-American guitarists like Blind Boy Fuller, Buchanan taught himself to play. He left home at fifteen, made his first recordings at the tender age of twenty, and played with folks like Ronnie Hawkins, Dale Hawkins and Freddie Cannon. He really wasn’t discovered until he was almost 32 years old, when a 1971 Rolling Stone article sang his praises. A checkered career followed, with a slew of major label recordings, a handful of indie sides and lots of live performances earning Buchanan lots of critical praise but little in the way of filthy lucre. He tragically took his own life in 1998 after a minor arrest for public drunkenness.

Said story is a way of explaining that Buchanan may well be one of the first true “cult” artists, a six-string wizard without peer who numbered among his admirers folks like Stanley Jordan, Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck, John Lennon, and Steve Cropper. All of which makes the appearance of this show especially poignant, since the market for Roy Buchanan boots must rank just above live discs by Stuffy & the Frozen Parachute Band or Hello People on the “labour of love” obscurity scale. Telecaster County documents a pretty tasty show, tho’, a fine mix of rocking covers like “Johnny B. Goode,” “Green Onions,” and “Susie Q” with extended blues jams on tunes like “Hey Joe” and the ten-minute “Bad Case of the Blues.” Although this show took place chronologically between Buchanan’s second album, released in ’73, and 1974’s “That’s What I’m Here For,” there’s very little overlap in songs. The performances slash and burn, however, Buchanan’s Telecaster dominating the arrangements – the shy artist never liked singing much and mostly stuck to instrumentals – while the rest of the band struggles to keep up.

Other than a few tapes that the hardcore faithful keep in circulation, there’s not much live Buchanan to be found in this world, and most of it is from late in his career. With much of his official efforts lapsing into undeserved obscurity, I’d recommend that anybody who loves guitar playing first check out Sweet Dreams: The Anthology. If you dig that, I’d heartily recommend Telecaster County, a fine document of an artist in his prime. (By the way, do you think that the producers of this disc meant to call it “Telecaster Country”? Surely the fabled guitar deserves its own fantasyland and not just a single county, eh?) (Head Records CD-R, released 1999)

Review originally published by Live! Music Review zine...

Archive Review: Jack Oblivian's Rat City (2011)

As a founding member of both the Compulsive Gamblers and the Oblivians, Jack Oblivian is as close to Memphis garage-rock royalty as you’ll find. For all that Oblivian has accomplished through the years, it’s often his solo work that shines the brightest. Rat City is Oblivian’s latest shot at glory, a boiling, rumbling stewpot of fatback punk-blues, spicy garage-rock, and sweet pop delivered in the Memphis tradition.

Whereas the title track is a streetfight with clashing instrumentation and city-slang lyrics that would make Armand Schaubroeck blush, cuts like the rollicking “Kidnapper” evince a Duane Eddy twang and Alex Chilton soul. “Girl On the Beach” is a melodic romantic ode with an undeniable hook while the stunning “Girl With the Bruises” is what the Clash would have sounded like had they come from Memphis. There’s a lot to like in the musical gumbo that is Rat City, Jack Oblivian one of rock’s lovable outcasts like Chilton, Willie DeVille, and all those others who dared walk on the edge with heart and soul. (Big Legal Mess/Fat Possum Records)

Review originally published by Blurt magazine, 2011

Hot Wax: The Reverend’s Summer Singles Playlist (2025)

Summer has finally opened its eyes and shaken off its long hibernation here in WNY, which means that those of us who reside on this frozen tundra are seeing the end of a long, cold, and wet spring season and staggering into the three-month inferno that is summertime ‘round these parts. The pile of 7” singles teetering in a haphazard pile in the Reverend’s office is threatening an unfortunate workplace disaster, so I thought that I’d pluck a few of the more worthy slabs ‘o wax from the stack and let you know about them with this year’s “Summer Singles Playlist.” Listen at your own peril…

The Big Ol’ Nasty Getdown – “Trill Seekers” b/w “Bananas” (Getdown Entertainment)
This one actually came out back in 2023, but it’s been given repeated spins on the trusty ol’ turntable since Big Ol’ Nasty Getdown bandleader John Heintz sent me a copy late last year. Side A’s “Trill Seekers” is a funky amalgam of Funkadelic and Sly & the Family Stone with the former’s wigged-out guitar strokes (courtesy of Timo Somers) and the latter’s undeniable rhythmic sense (provided by bassist Remco Hendriks and drummer Wesley Ritenour, along with wah bassist Cody W. Wright). It’s a pulse-quickening instrumental foot-shuffler with a bit of horn honk and an undeniable groove. 

Flip this gorgeous purple flapjack over and spin the “B” as in “Bananas” and you’ll find a similarly funky jam tho’ with more of a jazzy feel as a backdrop, the performance led by Keith Anderson’s frenetic saxplay and Bobby Sparks II’s nimble keyboards. Throw in Hendriks’ monster bass line, Jack Iron’s rock-solid timekeeping, and some delightfully skronky guitar via Tim Stewart’s out-of-control id and you have another liver-quivering, deep pocketed performance. The 7-incher is packaged in a thick quality fold-out sleeve adorned with gorgeous gonzo artwork by Jim Mazza and Jeff Wood.   BUY OR DIE!   

The Low Spirits – “You Lied” b/w “Never Said I Need You” (Outro Records)
The Low Spirits are a contemporary garage-rock outfit hailing from Rochester NY, but they sound like the Seeds cruising down Hollywood Boulevard on their way to Bido Lito’s. This latest 7” slab kicks off with “You Lied,” a punky high-octane treatise on love and betrayal fueled by Ryan Moore’s unrepentant keyboard-bashing, guitarist Michael Maier’s fuzztone string-pulling and snotty lead vox, and a heavy-as-uranium rhythm section comprised of bassist Richie Dejohn and drummer Zachary Koch. All of the guys contribute backing vocals, which add even more momentum to an already exhilarating performance. 

B-side “Never Said I Need You” rocks just as recklessly, but with a more somber vibe provided by Moore’s excellently-moody keys and moodier vocals, punctuated by shards of atmospheric guitar and well-timed backing harmonies. If you’re a fan of the Nuggets/Back From the Grave-inspired rock ‘n’ roll then you’ll dig the hell outta the Low Spirits!   BUY OR DIE!

Nervous Eaters – “Man’s Got A Right” b/w “No More Idols” (Penniman Records, Spain)
Boston’s Nervous Eaters are, in my estimation, one of the sorely overlooked punk rock outfits of the 1980s, a “one and done” major label flash ‘n’ the pan that subsequently went indie, releasing a handful of rockin’ elpees before calling it quits. Eaters guiding light Steve Cataldo reformed the band in 2018 and has since provided fans with two wonderful new albums on Little Steven’s Wicked Cool Records label. This recently-released import single dives into the time machine to offer up two previously unreleased vintage tunes. Side A’s “Man’s Got A Right” is a slaphappy slice of early ‘80s punk with a power-pop heartbeat, Cataldo’s low-slung vocals pumped up by the band’s gang harmonies and Jonathan Paley’s delightfully-tortured fretwork. 

Bassist Rob Skeen and drummer Jeff Wilkinson are a strong rhythm section, never more apparent than on the B’s madcap “No More Idols,” which one-ups the Ramones with a machinegun arrangement that features chainsaw guitar and more manic beats per minute than any slackjawed EDM wank-off. Both tunes provide unbridled energy, guaranteed to kick yer pacemaker into overdrive. Dave Anderson (of the Rochester NY band Calidoscopio) does an impressive job resurrecting what seem to be unreleased demos, bringing them back to life in the studio, Frankenstein-style.   BUY OR DIE!

The Shitkicker Rebellion – “White Light, White Heat” b/w “99th Floor” (Penniman Records, Spain)
The Shitkicker Rebellion is singer Greg “Stackhouse” Prevost and some of his friends from ‘round the Rochester NY area (sensing a theme here, are we?). Prevost, of course, has released four fine blues-rock albums over the past few years, each guaranteed to tickle your eardrums and pound your medulla oblongata into submission. Prevost gets his NYC groove on with this groovy new black pancake and a turbocharged cover of the Velvet Underground’s “White Light, White Heat” that comes into the DMZ hot with snarling vox resembling a cross between Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. The backing band offers tilted harmonies, and the song’s git solo is razor sharp, devastatingly recorded in the red for major mondo distortion. It’s a spine-yanking cover of a legendary tune that many have tried, but few have mastered; kudos to Prevost for blitzing an otherwise overplayed cover with unrelenting energy and attitude.

The poop-punting B-side (sorry, couldn’t resist…) is an equally inspired cover of the Moving Sidewalks’ 1967 treasure “99th Floor.” As the former frontman of beloved garage-rockers the Chesterfield Kings, Prevost can growl these Nuggets-styled gems out in his sleep; he’s no slacker, though, so he imbues the performance with a crackling, uncompromised punkish ferocity that is calmed only slightly by the mournful wail of his harmonica in the background while guitarist Ryan Moore (The Low Spirits) doesn’t so much as mimic Billy Gibbons’ guitar noise as re-writes its DNA. Guitarist Paul Morabito delivers a subtle-but-strong instrumental backdrop while the rhythm section of bassist Rick Cona (Chesterfield Kings) and drummer Zachary Koch (The Low Spirits) provide a cold steel consistency to the song’s runaway locomotion.   BUY OR DIE!

CD Review: Dave Specter’s Live At SPACE (2025)

Dave Specter is the secret weapon of the contemporary Chicago blues scene. A guitarist of extraordinary talent, Specter is well-versed in, and adept at melding blues, jazz, and rock into a singular, unique style. He’s kept the flame burning for blues music in his hometown, and although he doesn’t seem to venture far beyond his Illinois base too often, he’s helped promote and support other artists as a co-founder of SPACE, the Evanston IL club that features a wealth of performers of the blues, folk, jazz, and rock persuasion. Even a glance at the club’s upcoming schedule – which includes a slate of ‘must-see’ artists like the Sun Ra Arkestra, Don Flemons, Cedric Burnside, Roseanne Cash, NRBQ, and Walter Trout – is enough to make any music enthusiast not in Chicago green with envy.

If Specter isn’t as well known to the casual blues fan, it’s not for lack of anything. The guitarist has played with some of the finest in the blues universe, artists like Sam Lay (Paul Butterfield Blues Band), Hubert Sumlin (Howlin’ Wolf’s guitarist), and Son Seals, and he’s produced a slew of records by talented bluesfolk. His relationship with the legendary Delmark Records goes back roughly 35 years, and the recently-released Live At SPACE album is Specter’s 14th release with the esteemed blues label. Specter doesn’t get nearly the respect he’s earned, nor the attention he deserves, but his legion of loyal fans wait in anticipation for each new album.

Dave Specter’s Live At SPACE

Specter’s Live At SPACE isn’t his first live effort – the wonderful Live In Chicago came in 2008, and the equally-engaging Live In Europe way back in 1995 (with soulful vocalist Tad Robinson on the microphone). Still, 40 years into his career, Specter pursues growth as an artist and Live At SPACE displays a still-creative performer using his guitar as the brush and the stage as his canvas. It helps that his firecracker band, comprised of keyboardist/vocalist Brother John Kattke, bassist Rodrigo Mantovani, and drummer Marty Blinder, has developed a closeknit musical chemistry with the bandleader and is skilled enough to follow his every move on stage. The result is an entertaining and enticing live performance that would thrill any Chicago blues fan.

Live At SPACE opens with a pair of rambunctious instrumentals – “Rumba & Tonic” and “Alley Walk” – that are reminiscent of Booker T. & the M.G.’s and Stax Records. The former offers up an exotic, jazzy guitar intro and a loping rhythm that sways from one speaker to the other, with some elegant guitar licks along the way. Kattke adds a rollicking piano jam in the middle, followed by some Southern-fried keyboards. The latter song offers up more of a menacingly slow-paced, low-slung groove that allows the band to revel in some free-wheeling instrumentation like Specter’s livewire fretwork, Blinder’s jazzy brushes, and Mantovani’s fluid bass lines. It’s an invigorating performance that, at nearly six minutes, still ends too soon. A cover of the 1962 Otis Rush single “Homework,” by way of the J. Geils Band, is a clever amalgam of both versions, jazzy six-string flourishes and soulful vox vying with Kattke’s lively keys.  

(Not The) Same Old Blues

Specter’s own “Blues From the Inside Out” offers a jaunty, up-tempo performance that matches its sly lyrics to a jump-blues framework with plenty of jazzy guitar and a swinging rhythm while the original “Chicago Style” is both a reverential tribute to those who came before, from Howlin’ Wolf to Otis Clay, while establishing a Chicago blues sound for the new millennium, with vibrant guitarplay, hearty vocals, and an infectious walking rhythm. A cover of Memphis music legend Don Nix’s “Same Old Blues” (originally recorded by Freddie King) is a pastiche of 70 years of rhythm and blues history, honoring the soulful original while embellishing it with some hot licks and subtle, yet powerful Gospel-tinged keyboards. Specter’s original “March Through the Darkness” offers an uplifting, almost anthemic performance marrying a spiritual, Staples Family vibe to Specter’s gorgeous fretwork and Kattke’s soulful, Booker T-styled keyboard runs. 

A cover of the traditional folk song “Deep Elem Blues,” best known as recorded in 1935 by country outfit the Shelton Brothers, but resurrected in 1981 by the Grateful Dead as an Americana-styled excuse for extended jams, hews closer to the Dead’s version in spirit, but puts a ‘Chicago blues’ stamp on the song with a distinct Midwest vocal drawl, lively guitar strokes, and a funky groove punctuated by Kattke’s honky-tonk piano-pounding. Specter’s take on the great Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Bluebird Blues” is a blissful blues romp with heartbreak vox, late-night piano trills, and nuanced but emotionally-powerful guitarplay while Specter’s reverent take on Chicago blues legend Magic Sam Maghett’s “Ridin’ High” closes the album with an upbeat, intoxicating blend of Chicago-styled guitar pyrotechnics delivered against an exhilarating rhythm track.    

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Dave Specter may not be as well known as some of his contemporaries, but he’s been a constant presence on the Chicago blues scene for better than four decades – so long that he’s helped refine and define the city’s traditional sound with disparate elements that have expanded and improved upon what stalwarts like Tampa Red, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Paul Butterfield, and others had accomplished. Live At SPACE captures a March 2024 show by the underrated guitarist and it documents a performance without peer, as electric and entertaining a blues album as you’ll hear this year, or any other. If you’re a blues fan and haven’t yet picked up Dave Specter, you owe it to yourself to check out the transcendent performance offered by Live At SPACE. (Delmark Records, released June 6th, 2025) 

Also on That Devil Music:
Dave Specter’s Live In Chicago CD review

Buy the album from Amazon: Dave Specter’s Live At SPACE

Archive Review: Dave Specter’s Live In Chicago (2008)

Guitarist Dave Specter came up through the ranks differently than your typical blues artist. Specter didn’t pick up the guitar until the relatively old age of eighteen, but quickly immersed himself in the instrument. While working at the city’s famed Jazz Record Mart, the Chicago native took lessons from Steve Freund, Sunnyland Slim’s former guitarist. Freund subsequently hooked him up as a touring musician with Hubert Sumlin, Howlin’ Wolf’s guitarist, and Chicago blues legend, drummer Sam Lay.

Before putting his own band together in 1989, Specter made his bones as a guitar-for-hire, touring with such major league talents as Son Seals and the Legendary Blues Band and recording with artists like Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, and Jimmy Rogers, among many others. When it came time, Specter signed with Delmark, and released his debut album, Bluebird Blues, in 1991. In the decade-and-a-half since, Specter has recorded six highly-regarded studio albums and a live album.

Dave Specter’s Live In Chicago

Specter’s Live In Chicago, released on both CD and DVD, documents two August 2007 performances – one at Buddy Guy’s Legends club, and the other at the legendary Rosa’s Blues Lounge. The talented guitarist doesn’t sing, so he enlisted the help of several friends to handle the microphone while Specter did what he does best…play. Tad Robinson, Jimmy Johnson, and Sharon Lewis lend their voices to the event. To back him up, Specter put together an incredible collection of Chicago blues talent, including keyboardist Brother John Kattke (formerly of Buddy Guy’s band), bassist Harlan Terson  (Otis Rush’s band), and drummer Marty Binder (a veteran of Albert Collins’ band).

Live In Chicago opens with the lively instrumental duo “Boss Funk/Riverside Ride.” Specter brings a jazzy tone to his playing, a fluid ease similar to B.B. King. Whereas King often imbues his songs with a darker hue, Specter’s fretwork is bright and playful. The opening song includes some tasty Southern-fried keyboard courtesy of Brother John. As Kattke double-taps the keys with a funky flair, Dave and the boys strut through the song with a smooth groove. 

Vocalist and harmonica player Tad Robinson joins Specter onstage for “What Love Did To Me, blowing the harp with a soulful self-assuredness. Robinson’s vocals are where his strongest talents lie, however…sweet, bluesy, gruff, and welded to the energetic harp passages. The song shuffles along to a fast-walking beat, Specter adding guitar flourishes throughout that add to the emotion that Robinson is pouring into the performance. 

How I Got To Memphis

A cover of Tom T. Hall’s urban country classic “How I Got To Memphis” is a fine example of Dixie soul that mixes a slight country twang with rough-hewn vocals and a deep rhythmic groove. Specter’s playing here is transcendent, displaying a tougher edge, trembling tone, and plenty of heart. Robinson’s potent vocals convey the song’s heartbreak and anguish. The instrumental “Texas Top” showcases the fine talents of the band that Specter assembled for the recording. Drummer Marty Binder keeps a steady, if subdued beat alongside Terson’s muted bass lines. Specter picks out a nasty sort of Lone Star state funk, channeling both Stevie Ray and T-Bone Walker on a red-hot six-string workout. Brother John Kattke’s fingers fly across the keys, lending a honky-tonk feel to the song.    

Guitarist Jimmy Johnson joins the band for the old-school Jimmy Rogers’ tune “Out On The Road.” Johnson’s style compliments Specter’s, the guitarist achieving a blunt, rich tone shorn of its edge, but stinging nonetheless. Johnson’s higher-pitched vocals, although not as strong as, say, Robinson’s, are just as expressive. The rocking standard 12-bar blues structure of the Chick Willis classic “Feel So Bad” benefits from Johnson’s opening six-string salvo, the bluesman playing off Terson’s bass groove before launching into a sorrowful tale of love gone wrong. It’s a classic blues tune, full of energy yet always just bubbling under the boiling point.

Singer Sharon Lewis hits the stage for the raucous, up-tempo “In Too Deep.” Lewis is an entertaining vocalist, capable of really belting out a song with heart and soul. Specter adds his tasteful fretwork astride a slip-sliding rhythm while Lewis delivers a crowd-pleasing performance. An original Lewis song, the soul ballad “Angel,” closes out the too-brief Rosa’s set. Specter’s delicate guitar intro reminds of the Jimi Hendrix’s classic “Little Wing” with beautiful tone and enchanting space between the notes. Lewis displays the other end of her great vocal range, delivering an emotional reading of the song in a Gospel vein. 

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

A gifted instrumentalist with a variety of styles at his disposal, Dave Specter is an unsung talent on the Chicago blues scene. Specter is no blues purist, but rather an enthusiast who incorporates elements of bluesmen like T-Bone Walker, Magic Sam, and Otis Rush in his work, along with jazzier influences like Kenny Burrell and, although it’s understated, B.B. King. Live In Chicago is an incredible display of Specter’s talents as a guitarist, as a stylist, and as a bandleader. This is a good show, and well worth hearing for any dedicated blues fan. (Delmark Records, released 2008)

Archive Review: True Believers’ True Believers (1986)

Austin, Texas has been the breeding ground of instrumental outlaws and various cosmic cowboys for nigh onto a decade now, ever since the city’s identification as a musical mecca in the early ‘70s. The current class of artists reaching for that ever-elusive brass ring includes such talents as Zeitgeist and True Believers, a band whose self-titled vinyl bow is sure to create unparalleled aural excitement in the uninitiated.

True Believers offers up an energetic blend of roadhouse blues, country-honk, and guitar band histrionics (the Believers featuring not one, not two, but THREE competent axemen!). There’s not a dull moment to be found within these grooves, with this writer’s personal faves, the melodic cover of “Rebel Kind” and the lyrically-haunting original “The Rain Won’t Help You When It’s Over” representative of the depth of talent to be found in True Believers. The band’s sincerity, the intensity of their music, and their sense of roots proves that rock ‘n’ roll lives outside of London or Los Angeles. (EMI America, released 1986)

Review originally published by Nashville’s The Metro magazine...

Archive Review: Eugene Chadbourne’s The President, He Is Insane (1984)

The founder and guitarist of Shockabilly, a demented C&W influenced outfit that had several albums released by England’s Rough Trade label, Eugene Chadbourne is one of America’s greatest natural resources, a one-eyed man among a nation of the blind. Eugene is a social and political satirist with the tact of a sledgehammer, his original songs showing reverence for no holy cows, calling a spade a spade, and hurling pointed barbs at targets as diverse as North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms (a politician once described as standing so far to the right that he makes Reagan look like a communist), President Reagan, Jerry Falwell, ‘Women Against Pornography’ and the Ku Klux Klan.

It's all done with a sense of absurdity in a musical style that can only be described as cacophonic and unpredictable, a strange blend of rock ‘n’ roll, county, and folk influences with a dose of metal-edged guitar and sheer noisy industrial instrumentation. Chadbourne’s The President, He Is Insane is a studio-quality presentation of some of Eugene’s best material. Side one features several of his…ah, shall we say…somewhat “structured” songs, including such fan favorites as “America Stands Tall,” “10 Most Wanted List,” and “Women Against Pornography.”

Eugene Chadbourne

Side two is strictly improvisational, mixing Eugene’s guitarwork with scrap vocals from late-night movies and early morning cartoons along with background instrumentation provided by Chadbourne’s infamous electric rake and, apparently, whatever noise he can drum up with various kitchen utensils and appliances. Not for everyone, to be sure, but nevertheless interesting and unique.

Eugene is, in the American tradition, somewhat of a capitalist, offering both his solo albums and older Shockabilly material for sale from his home. He also has a catalog of some 30+ original tapes, recorded at live shows and in his home, spotlighting and documenting a truly deranged genius, raw and totally uncommercial. (Iridescence Records, released 1984)

Review originally published by Nashville’s The Metro magazine...

Archive Review: Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper’s Frenzy (1986)

With the release of Frenzy, Mojo Nixon insures his place among the pantheon of great rock eccentrics, among such strange stalwarts as Frank Zapa, Lord Buckley, and Captain Beefheart. Mojo and his sideman Skid Roper can best be described as musical minimalists, mutant madmen who swap washboard licks with demented guitar riffs and a little wild mouth harp now and then as Mojo runs amok through a musical menu that includes inspired covers of Alice Cooper’s “Be My Lover” and an amazing one-and-a-half-minute version of Iron Butterfly’s psychedelic classic, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.”

Mojo’s original material is not for the weak of heart, showcasing his fervor and passion on such songs as “The Amazing Bigfoot Diet,” a good-natured swipe at those tabloids found in supermarket check-out lines; “Stuffin’ Martha’s Muffin,” a scatological anti-MTV protest song which reveals Mojo’s hidden lust for veejay Martha Quinn; and the hero worship of “The Ballad of Wendell Scott.” All totaled, Frenzy delivers over a dozen of Mojo’s finest creations, a musical blend of talking blues, roots-rock, and incredible insanity, counting among his influences artists as diverse as Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Lou Reed, and Iggy Pop. Mojo Nixon is a true social iconoclast.

For those of you who can’t get enough of the right Reverend Mojo Nixon and his ‘Screamin’ Church of the Epileptic Jesus, his first LP – Free, Drunk & Horny – features such classic tunes as “Jesus At McDonald’s,” “Moanin’ With Yer Mama,” and “I’m In Love With Your Girlfriend” and is also available from Enigma Records. (Enigma Records, released 1986)  

Review originally published by Nashville’s The Metro magazine...

CD Review: Pink Floyd’s Pink Floyd at Pompeii MCMLXXII (2025)

An often-bootlegged, fan-favorite performance(s) by classic rock legends Pink Floyd, the band’s four nights at the Roman Amphitheatre in Pompeii, Italy in October 1971 was filmed by director Adrian Maben and released as a concert movie in 1972. It was expanded from 60 to 80 minutes for re-release in ’73, and finally made its way stateside the following year, grossing roughly $2 million at the U.S. movie box office (pretty good for those days).

The performance has released on home video formats several times over the years, and was restored to 4k resolution for an April 2025 theatrical release. For whatever reasons, however, the performance has never received proper CD release, appearing in truncated form on the 2016 Obfusc/ation box set, leaving it up to bootleggers like The Swingin’ Pig and Black Cat Records to satisfy fan demand in the Floyd marketplace with dodgy, illicit (albeit entertaining) CD releases.

Pink Floyd’s Pink Floyd at Pompeii MCMLXXII

At long last, Pink Floyd at Pompeii MCMLXXII restores the concert to its full-length across two CDs and long-suffering Floyd fans should be overjoyed. The sound quality is excellent, beating the pants off previous bootleg versions, and although the tracks could have been split more evenly between the two discs (CD2 is a spry 18 minutes), that’s a minor cavil at best. The performance is awe-inspiring, the material falling into the band’s proggy, space-rock period around Atom Heart Mother and Meddle, with trippy performances of the latter album’s “Echoes” and “One of These Days” that presage then-on-the-horizon Dark Side of the Moon.

There are nods to Floyd’s formidable Syd-embroidered psychedelic past with “A Saucerful of Secrets” and “Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun” as well as Ummagumma’s celestial classic “Careful With That Axe Eugene” and the oddball obscurity “Mademoiselle Nobs,” a curious country blues vamp. This is primo grade Pink Floyd at its experimental and innovative best, and a long overdue release from one of classic rock’s signature outfits. (Columbia Records, released April 25th, 2025) Grade: A+
   
Buy the CD from Amazon: Pink Floyd’s Pink Floyd at Pompeii MCMLXXII