I was able to catch bluesman Johnny Shines at a festival back in the mid 70s, and my first thought was “So this is how the real blues sound.” Little did I realize back then that Mr. Shines had not only met blues legend Robert Johnson, but even toured with him and later his stepson. Every nuance on this record feels like a stroll into the delta looking for the taproot of American blues.
This concert is from 1973 at Washington University’s Graham Chapel. Except for three tunes where he’s accompanied by guitarist Leroy Jodie Pierson, he’s all on his own, picking and grinning, telling yarns and playing like he’s sitting on your back porch.
His picking is able to chug like a locomotive on pieces like “Big Boy Boogie” and “Goodbye Boogie” and he throws in field hollars on the wailing “Seems Like A Million Years.” He holds his cry for an eternity on the opening shout of “Have You Ever Loved A Woman” and is raspy as his strings drip like a morning dew with Pierson on “The Blues Came Falling Down.” The other two duets include a pickfest on “Sweet Home Chicago” and a dreamlike “Big star Falling.” The other take-away here is the mastery of Shines on slide, as he taps into his inner Rickey Henderson on the steamy “It’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine” and the strings cry for mercy on “Cold In Hand Blues.” Simple, basic and unpretentious-if you don’t know what to listen for you’ll miss the glories here, and there’s a lot to take in on each long sip of the blues.