The past few months have seen a plethora of blues rockers play through the City of Angels. Johnny Lang, Joe Bonamassa and Keith Wayne Shepherd just to name a few. Without a scintilla of doubt, the guy that is still the heavyweight champion is the Secret Agent Man who started it all at the Whiskey a Go Go over 50 years ago, and for 105 minutes Johnny Rivers showed why he’s still the standard by which all other blue eyed soul rockers are compared.
Let’s face it, most bluesers have fans that are men, but, like the legendary Steve McQueen, Rivers has the rare quality of being admired by both sexes. His bonafide identification with earthy blues was easily palpable with his band of Doug Hamlin/g, Jerry Summer/dr, Skip Edmonds/key and Darrell Cook/b as he snarled with his streetwise voice through gritty stompers like “Midnight Special” and “Chicago Bound” while his guitar picking was exemplary as he cruised through “Route 66” and honky tonked through “Rockin’ Pneumonia.”
But his true art was making these broad strokes of color meld cohesively with softer pastels in pieces like the gorgeous “Summer Rain” “Tracks of My Tears” “Poor Side of Town” and “Baby, I Need Your Lovin’” which he was able to turn into a sing along for the house full of Baby Boomers. Even better, has the instinct on guitar to not only know what to play in his solos, but what NOT to play, as there is never any excess of notes for the sake of mindless chops, and even when he stretches out, it is never for the sake of self indulgence but for keeping the groove and mood intact. Even better, when the vocal backup group The Wallace Family joined on stage, he was able to bring an infectious gospel flavor into the mix during “Mountain of Love.”
Going back to rock’s roots on a two stepping dandy of “Maybelline” Rivers reminded all listeners that one of music’s great purposes is to get people dancing, which may be a shock to the present generation of Millennial navel gazers. Rivers got the crowd to party on “Memphis” and “Secret Agent Man” as well as create a romantic mood on the encore “Slow Dancing” before uniting the audience to remember the other use of music, as he closed with “One Love” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”
He may still be living a life of danger, but it’s still as the king of the hill.
Upcoming concerts at the Saban/Canyon Club include Ottmar Liebert 0Feb 12, The Spinners Mar 03/05, George Benson Mar 04Jean-Luc Ponty June 03/08, Frankie Valli June/23