As big a blues fan as the Beast Who Slumbers is, he’s always found George Thorogood’s bourbon-soaked brand too generic for his tastes. However, Thorogood’s own taste in guitar slingers has always been top shelf. Perhaps the greatest of ’em all, and ‘bulo’s all-time favorite, is Texas native son Albert ‘Iceman’ Collins. His unique tunings and stinging style of playing touch all the pleasure centers in ‘bulo’s brain and butt. Here he is, with two other outstanding players in their own right, Duke Robillard and Debbie Davies, with a definitive (even if the vid is a little washed-out) version of “Frosty”:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqqgqrbFdwM&feature=related[/youtube]
This video reminds ‘bulo of the night at the Chestnut Cabaret when Albert Collins, armed with the World’s Longest Extension Cord, led the crowd out of the Cabaret and down Chestnut Street, all the while playing those rapidfire riffs.
As long as El Somnambulo is on the subject of great shows he saw at the Chestnut, you’d have to go a long way to top the Neville Brothers circa 1987 or so. ‘Bulo believes that for a period of a few years, they were the best American performing band around. Combining funk, the entire N’Awlins musical gumbo, a soupcon of jazz, and a jam band ethos, there was nothing not to like.
Here from 1995, one of their seminal tunes:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXI4hvLtjKE&feature=related[/youtube]
Only thing left to say is ‘Mighty Kooty Fiyo on a Mardi Gras Day’.