Showing posts with label Christine Perfect. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christine Perfect. Show all posts

Thursday, January 24, 2019

Christine Perfect - The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions

Year: 2008
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 49:46
Size: 115,1 MB
Styles: Blues/rock
Scans: Full

1. Crazy 'Bout You Baby (3:06)
2. I'm On My Way (3:12)
3. Let Me Go (Leave Me Alone) (3:37)
4. Wait And See (3:17)
5. Close To Me (2:43)
6. When You Say (3:18)
7. And That's Saying A Lot (3:00)
8. No Road Is The Right Road (2:51)
9. For You (2:48)
10. I'm Too Far Gone (To Turn Around) (Album Version) (3:28)
11. I Want You (2:27)
12. Tell Me You Need Me (Previously Unreleased) (3:23)
13. I'm Too Far Gone (To Turn Around) (Single Version) (3:19)
14. Hey Baby (Previously Unreleased BBC Session) (2:36)
15. It's You I Miss (Previously Unreleased BBC Session) (3:48)
16. Gone Into The Sun (Previously Unreleased BBC Session) (2:45)

Christine McVie (nee Perfect) is one of the great unsung talents of British blues and pop. Her work with Fleetwood Mac is often overshadowed by her more showy counterparts, Lindsay Buckingham, Peter Green or Stevie Nicks. She provided the spine to their material, and especially added a consistency during the group's wilderness years between 1970 and 1975 (for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, check out her contributions to 1973's Mystery To Me album).

This CD is her oft-reissued Christine Perfect album, recorded for Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon label in the period between her leaving Chicken Shack and before she joined her husband-to-be John McVie in Fleetwood Mac. McVie herself has frequently played down the record. Although certainly not a major work, it is a pretty textbook example of pleasant blues rock as the 60s became the 70s. To be honest, her tracks sound pretty much like later Fleetwood Mac album material, which given the presence of John McVie on bass and Danny Kirwan on guitar, is fairly understandable. Her version of Kirwan's When You Say is a standout, easily giving Fleetwood Mac's Then Play On version a run for its money. Perfect's piano work here strives to distil the very essence of the blues.

It is the additional material that highlights her at her best: the demo, Tell Me You Need Me, that was also demoed by Fleetwood Mac, is by far and away the best track here. The song underlines the pleasure of her best work; languid, expressive, soulful. With three BBC session recordings here as well, The Complete Blue Horizon Recordings, although hardly essential, is a very welcome listen. /Daryl Easlea, BBC

(For personnel details, see artwork included.)

The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions mc
The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions zippy

Friday, March 31, 2017

Chicken Shack - O.K. Ken?

Year: 1969
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:19
Size: 98,2 MB
Styles: Electric blues
Scans: Full

1. Baby's Got Me Crying (2:34)
2. The Right Way Is My Way (2:33)
3. Get Like You Used To Be (3:49)
4. Pony And Trap (3:20)
5. Tell Me (4:50)
6. A Woman Is The Blues (3:28)
7. I Wanna See My Baby (3:52)
8. Remington Ride (3:03)
9. Fishing In Your River (4:40)
10. Mean Old World (3:44)
11. Sweet Sixteen (6:21)

Chicken Shack are a British blues band, founded in the mid-1960s by Stan Webb (guitar and vocals), Andy Silvester (bass guitar), and Alan Morley (drums), who were later joined by Christine Perfect (vocals and keyboards) in 1968.

The band were formed in April 1965, naming themselves after Jimmy Smith's "Back at the Chicken Shack" album. Chicken shacks (chicken restaurants) had also by then frequently been mentioned in blues and rhythm and blues songs, as in Amos Milburn's hit, "Chicken Shack Boogie". Their first concert was at the 1967 National Blues and Jazz Festival at Windsor and they were signed by the Blue Horizon record label in the same year.

Chicken Shack enjoyed modest commercial success, with Christine Perfect being voted Best Female Vocalist in the Melody Maker polls, two years running.

Perfect left the band in 1969 when she married John McVie of Fleetwood Mac. Pianist Paul Raymond, bassist Andy Silvester, and drummer Dave Bidwell all left in 1971 to join Savoy Brown. In 1977 Silvester joined Los Angeles based ensemble, Wha-Koo. Webb was also recruited for Savoy Brown in the mid-1970s, and recorded the album Boogie Brothers with them.

O.K. Ken? mc
O.K. Ken? zippy

Friday, March 18, 2016

Chicken Shack - 40 Blue Fingers, Freshly Packed & Ready To Serve

Year: 1968/2013
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 52:19
Size: 121,2 MB
Styles: Electric blues
Scans: Full

1. The Letter (4:30)
2. Lonesome Whistle Blues (3:05)
3. When The Train Comes Back (3:33)
4. San-Ho-Zay (3:05)
5. King Of The World (5:03)
6. See See Baby (2:25)
7. First Time I Met The Blues (6:27)
8. Webbed Feet (2:55)
9. You Ain't No Good (3:38)
10. What You Did Last Night (4:41)
11. It's Ok With Me Baby (Bonus) (2:39)
12. When My Left Eye Jumps (Bonus) (6:30)
13. Hey Baby (Bonus) (3:43)

If one can overlook Stan Webb's hyperventilating vocal excesses (which ain't easy), this is a promising debut, especially noteworthy for Webb's Freddie King-inspired guitar sting and Christine Perfect's understated vocals (only two, unfortunately compared to Webb's six). Webb does justice to his mentor with two instrumentals, King's "San-Ho-Zay" and his own "Webbed Feet," and Perfect proves the ideal counterpart -- one of the few pianists paying homage to King's longtime collaborator Sonny Thompson. Nice spare sound, typical of Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon label. /Dan Forte, AllMusic

40 Blue Fingers, Freshly Packed & Ready To Serve mc
40 Blue Fingers, Freshly Packed & Ready To Serve zippy