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Montruex Blues Festival. Excello 28026 [8 tracks on Anthology] 1972. Jimmy Dawkins: v,g. Louis Myers, g. David Myers, b, Lafayette Leake, p. Fred Below, d. Casino trick stick (2.50) Five long years (4.47) Dust my broom / Sweet home Chicago (5.06) Whole lotta lovin´ (3.02) Im´gonna move to the outskirts of town (7,40) You don´t love me (3.00) Close down boogie (2.22) Got my mojo working (6,30) (Guitar only. Lightning Slim vocals)

Review (+++)

Excello gave Jimmy Dawkins a low down dirty deal . They recorded one overproduced monster of a blues album, Transatlantic 770, and then, more by chance than planned, these live tracks. Why did they bother to sign up Jimmy? It´s strange how some labels in the seventies contracted contemporary blues artists and then didn´t know what to do with them. Luther Allison is the prime example. His years at Tamla Motown was if not a waste of time, at least didn´t show what he could have done at the time. Ok, back to Jimmy. Montreux Jazz Festival in 1972 held several big names from the blues and rockn´roll field. Excello sent four of their top artists, Dr Ross, Bessie Griffin, Lightning Slim with Whispering Smith and Jimmy Dawkins, and these four artists share a double album.

Jimmy Dawkins is backed by the Aces and Lafayette Leake on piano, and they do a great job. In fact, outside the three Delmark albums, this is the best back up band Jimmy had on record in the seventies. The Myers brothers and Fred Below really knows how to play a shuffle so it swings. Kent Ersson in Jefferson 34 says Louis Myers complained that Jimmy played too loud and that the band was heavily delayed so that half of the audience already had gone home when the show started. But as Kent Ersson also says, as a listener you can´t tell there are any tensions in the band. The music is real good. What you maybe can feel, is that since the songs are quite short, the half filled concert arena didn´t rocket Jimmy´s playing to the stars. The Excello album is still the best live album by Jimmy (I haven´t heard All Blues). The two MCM albums could have been fantastic, the band is awesome, but somehow the real magic is only partly there. There might not have been magic in the air in Montreux either, but you could expect at least Siegfried and Roy to walk in at the end...

• Casino trick stick
  The very first lick sound like the trademark Brewer Phillips intro, but the song evolves into a tough driving showcase for Jimmy´s rapid fire solo lines. Jimmy´s guitar on this album sounds like a mix between the tremolo notes from Fast Fingers and the intensity from Tribute to Orange. Jimmy´s playing is very sharp this evening
• Five long years
  A droooowning chord opens the song and I´m sold. No one plays those West Side chords like Jimmy Dawkins. The singing is average, Jimmy doesn´t try to sing,. he merely speakes the words. Very effective! In the solo Jimmy is showing the first traces of the more cracked up playing he later showed on Blisterstring. He starts a line, drops it, tries again and comes thru.
• Dust my broom / Sweet home Chicago
  The odds are against this song. It´s the standard of standard blues songs and in Sweet Home Chicago a member of the audience comes up on stage and plays harmonica. This could have been awful, but somehow it works. The harp is in fact good and the song sounds a lot more like the blues battle between Jimmy and Otis Rush on All for business than a jam on an european blues festival. AND the song is just 5.06 long. This could have gone on forever...
• Whole lotta lovin´
  Feedback! Well, the song don´t turn out to be a Grateful Dead jam, instead it´s a finger poppin´ shuffle where especially Dave Myers bouncy base makes your feet move and your fingers snap etc.
• Im´gonna move to the outskirts of town
  A traditional slow blues with a long and intense guitar opening. I love it. Jimmy takes time in the middle of the song to give the audience a talking blues history lesson when he introduces the band.
• You don´t love me
  Not much to say than that this is a solid take of this classic.
• Close down boogie
  The hottest guitar of the night comes in the last song. Listen to the speed he has on his tremolo notes! A great last song, leaving the audience want more.