There are still some die-hard purists in the blues world who want nothing to do with rock, soul, or jazz and refuse to perform anything that doesn't adhere to a traditional 12-bar structure, but people who fit that description have become harder and harder to find. Go to a major event like the annual Chicago Blues Festival in downtown Chicago's Grant Park, and you will not only encounter disciples of
Muddy Waters,
Lightnin' Hopkins, or
John Lee Hooker -- you will also find blues-oriented performers who have been influenced by
Tower of Power,
Jimi Hendrix,
Richard "Groove" Holmes, or
Ike & Tina Turner. One of the bluesmen who has been contributing to that diversity is guitarist
Dave Specter, whose
Live in Chicago was recorded in August 2007 at two of the Windy City's blues clubs: Buddy Guy's Legends and Rosa's Blues Lounge.
Specter, true to form, gets his inspiration from a variety of places, tackling everything from electric 12-bar blues on
Chick Willis' "Feel So Bad" and
Jimmy Rogers' "Out on the Road" (both of which feature singer
Jimmy Johnson) to instrumental soul-jazz on "Is What It Is."
Specter even embraces a country-rock song:
Tom T. Hall's "That's How I Got to Memphis," one of three selections featuring
Tad Robinson on vocals.
Specter and
Robinson, however, don't approach "That's How I Got to Memphis" as country-rock, but rather as Southern soul of the Stax/Malaco variety -- and considering that
Hall was never a country purist any more than
Specter has been a blues purist, it isn't terribly surprising that one of
Hall's compositions would find its way to an R&B performance in a blues-oriented (though not blues-exclusive) environment. And speaking of R&B, singer
Sharon Lewis' soul credentials make their presence felt when she joins
Specter on "In Too Deep" and the gospel-ish "Angel" (which straddles the fence between the secular and the spiritual).
Live in Chicago is a consistently rewarding demonstration of
Specter's versatility. ~ Alex Henderson