Luther Allison
Blue Streak

by Brett Ratner

I was not familiar with the music of Luther Allison until I attended the Handy Awards this year.

While the event was star-studded with blues legends, this individual who was unknown to me was the center of attention, literally cleaned up at the awards and was treated like a king (pun not intended) at every nightclub he appeared at the next two days. For the record, in Memphis, being treated like a king means being handed an ax and coaxed on stage the minute you walk into a place, despite the fact that there are droves of wannabes literally begging to step into the spotlight.

Needless to say, I got to see a lot of Allison that week. Regardless of the venue, no matter who's guitar he was holding or what amp he plugged into, the man proved over and over why he is such a popular performer. I still wondered exactly what could set one blues record so far apart from another.

I finally picked up a copy of Luther's 1995 release Blue Streak on Alligator records to see what all the fuss was about. Because, as you know, all blues records are just pale recreations of their awesome barroom shows basically live recordings of four guys in a studio trying to play like they were in a smoky blues joint, but not quite capturing the spirit. The lack of energy in most blues records, in my opinion, accounts for why blues artists don't sell very many records, but play 300 plus gigs a year.

Happily, this record does a tremendous job of incorporating the reckless abandon and spontaneity inherent to Allison's live performances. All it's really missing is the crowd noise.

Not unlike Stevie Ray Vaughan, Allison had no problems forgetting that he wasn't in front of a crowd and immersed himself in the music. His band followed along and did some serious jamming, coming out of the gate full bore with "All the King's Horses," locking in to Allison's dynamics in "Big City," doing the Percy Sledge type-ballad thing with "Think With Your Heart," and bringing it all to a slow simmer with "Should I Wait."

In a nutshell, blues records are hard to review. There's only so much you can do with a I-IV-V progression in terms of playing progressively, and there's only so much to talk about because everyone knows what to expect. It's not about breaking new ground, it's about capturing emotion. In other words, either it cooks or it doesn't cook. Luther cooks.