Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
There are expectations that have to be met when listening to a live album. The first is that the sound recreated on a stage, possibly many hundreds of miles from wherever you are fortunate enough to actually listen to the gig, has to be able to make the imagination run riot, to revel in the flow and thrust of the guitar, to feel the sweat run down your neck in anticipation and to envisage the person infront of you in the audience nervously sweating along with you. The taste of the gig has to be captured just right, else it is lost and abandoned like an errant Victorian child left at the Poor House.
There have always been great live albums; Iron Maiden, Johnny Cash, Genesis, Joe Bonamassa and Joanne Shaw Taylor have expounded the potential of the art form, now Royal Southern Brotherhood join the ranks of great live recordings with the album Live In Germany.
As part of Ruf Records notable Songs From The Road series, the chorus of the first live track, Fired Up, encapsulates the spirit in which the release by the band is intended. The C.D certainly is “Fired up and ready To Go”.
It is the chemistry; that heady mix of musician synchronicity, that makes the album stand-out, the membership of the band gelling as if being held by an unbreakable bond of friendship, trust and admiration in each other’s ability. For Devon Allman, the great Cyril Neville, Mike Zito, Charlie Wooton and Yonrico Scott, the Brotherhood really is a very tangible and almost sacred possession.
The reaction from the crown in Germany as they take in tracks such as Hurts My Head, Gotta Keep Rockin’, the superb Left My Heart In Memphis and All Around The World really typify the response that Royal Southern Brotherhood should certainly come back to Europe again and certainly do more than one night stands in London and Carlisle in the U.K. Not only does the music flow well but the enjoyment, sometimes so sadly missing in a live album, comes shining through with pace and ease.
Alongside Joe Bonamassa’s excellent night in Vienna and the ever gracious Joanne Shaw Taylor’s magnificent live recording this year, Live In Germany is a fitting endorsement to the power of the Blues in the early 21st Century and this live recording is enough to make your appreciation of the genre climb ever higher.
Ian D. Hall