After the wonderful studio album ‘Risin’ High’ that Jackson Stone offered us last year, Davis Verno Jr band is back again on a double live album, maybe surprising but that honestly shows how the Jackson Stone Band is on stage. First, to be honest, I was surprised when I’ve read the songs on the cover : only one title of the fabulous last cd (‘Gime the Wheel’) and.. only covers…. We can be surprised, cannot we ?
So, after the surprise, this album is however very interesting and shows that, in the United States, this ain’t obvious for a band to go and to stay to the top in playing only his own songs that the audience doesn’t know. So they had to chose to play cover songs on stage, and we can understand that choice. So we find a melting pot of the main influences of the Jackson Stone Band, first with Lynyrd Skynyrd (‘What’s your Name’, ‘Simple man’, ‘Sweet Home Alabama’), and also ZZ Top (‘Tush’), Molly Hatchet (‘Dreams I’ll never see’), Bachman Turner Overdrive (‘Taking Care of Business’), and many famous Blues Rock songs (‘Mustang Sally’, ‘Rock me Baby’, ‘Stormy Monday’, ‘Sweet Home Chicago’, etc…). During all that show, we realize that this band is really around Davis Verno Jr (a great guitarist and especially a great singer) and around the keyboards player Brian West who is present on many songs. This album is delightful, the sound and the production are really good. I only regret the lack of female singers that were so good on ‘Risin’ High’!
A double live album to be listened to with your friends and at the right volume level !
John Molet