5 July : Feelin’ The Blues

I wrote about the Chambers Brothers’ Love, Peace and Happiness here on 11 February. Readers with reasonable memories may recall that I really liked it. So I was pleased when I saw this album getting a review in Billboard in July 1970**. Does it match up to it’s predecessor? Kind of.

It is another live collection, but much more varied in tone and content. It covers soul, r’n’b, doo-wop, gospel and blues, all played with verve and skill. There’s an easy competence about this whole set, without ever being flashy. I don’t find it quite so engaging as Love, Peace and Happiness, it’s a little too varied for that; but it’s a relative thing: this is an enjoyable record.

One of the things I find most refreshing about it is that a white group of the period (or even now) covering the same material would treat us to a screaming guitar solo in every song. There are no guitar solos on this; nada; zip; not a one. That isn’t because they couldn’t have done it, it’s because they chose not to, and it’s the better for it.

Reviewing their earlier album I wrote:

You ain’t got the blues if you ain’t got soul; the Chambers Brothers have soul to give away.

I see no reason to resile from that. I’ve said before that I try to listen to each album I write about here twice; I’m on my third time through Feelin’ The Blues (8 songs, 33 minutes: that’s the way to do it).

** Incidentally, there are 31 days in July but only 15 albums I want to write about (there were 16 but I can’t find a decent listening copy of one of them). But one of those 15 is one of my favourite albums by anyone, ever.

This is the Spotify link. There is also a YouTube playlist.