Road Cases (Live)

This 76-minute collection of live cuts from two live shows in Oregon during 1996 starts off a little ominously, in terms of the beat that the group uses on "I Just Wanna Make Love to You," but Rod Price's guitar carries the day and the group does well enough on the old blues-rock standard, stretched out to nearly ten minutes. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of variety in the sound of Lonesome Dave Peverett's singing, which is good, but not quite good enough to sustain interest across over an hour of largely original material. The material offers some variation — the most attractive songs here are Chess-based material, which includes "Chevrolet," an undisguised Bo Diddley variation, but the group does better with originals like "Soakin' the Bone" (itself a Jimmy Reed rip-off). The material is well-recorded, and fans of Rod Price's guitar will definitely not feel short-changed by the mix or the mastering. [The 2001 double-disc release by SPV includes two songs not found on the original — "It's Too Late" and "Stone Blue" — and two bonus tracks: "Angel of Mercy" and "Tear You Down."]