Live At the 100 Club

Ah, aging British bluesmen, may they bless listeners with their sheer taste and verve for many years to come. British harp duke Paul Lamb is caught here with his mighty King Snakes band tearing down the house in 2002 with a raw, woolly, and wild set. Fronted by the stellar vocalist Earl Green (formerly of Savoy Brown), one of the last truly inspiring blues singers, and Lamb blowing the hell out of his harp, guitarist John Whitehill, bassist (upright as well as electric) Rod Demick, and drummer Sonny Below have the wildness of the late great Red Devils from L.A. and the early Fabulous Thunderbirds combined with that certain understated elegance that makes the British blues so unique and necessary. What's more, rather than doing endless and unnecessary rehashes of blues nuggets from the ages, Lamb and crew perform — with the exception of one tune — a completely original set. All members contributed tunes, and all are played with the same fierceness and greasy verve that sweating in front of a live audience would dictate. This is four-to-the-floor from the opening "Mad About My Baby" to the rolling and tumbling of "No Glue in the World," the instrumental "Whitehill's Walk," Lamb's country (as in western) shuffle "Hootin' and Screamin'," and Green's amazing bluesiastic orgy of swing and guttersnipe grit, "Open Up." There isn't a weak moment in the set; this album swings and struts right through to "Makes You Feel Good," a slim slow slider done in distorted tones, bent-note furies, and shimmering timbres that transforms itself into a swamp-funk stomper. Just get it.