Artist: Johnny Shines
Album: The Blues Came Falling Down - Live (2 CD)
Label: Omnivore Records
Release Date: 5.3.2019
Anything new from the late, truly great Johnny Shines is nothing short of pure gold. Shines remains one of the greatest US bluesmen to have graced the planet, a man with a distinctive vocal delivery and guitar chops that fearlessly met any challenge presented, with class, style, rippling beauty and absolute ease. This man was sent out to “cut” the blues god and king Robert Johnson way back in the day on the Northern street corners.
Here, we have a stunning 20-track, live double album, full to busting with Johnny Shines’ most revered and loved tracks, a previously unreleased goldmine from 1973 that belies the recording era with remarkable recording quality and values. Having watched Robert Johnson working the streets, instead of trying to muscle in, Shines found himself entranced by the guy, and as a result became a close friend and confidant, the two taking to the road together for years until Johnson’s untimely, well-documented but mysterious death in 1938.
Some actually say that Shines could do anything Johnson could. That might be an overstatement that also belittles Shines himself as a bluesman, who had his own vibe and feel for the music, talents that bound the guys together from the very start. Anyone looking for an album that simply shines (no pun) in every conceivable way should look no further than this master class in laid-back, period blues from a towering master of the genre. Wow, what an album. Thank you Omnivore Recordings.
—Iain Patience
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