Buddy Guy & Friends
The Limelight
Chicago, IL
Sunday, April 19, 1987
Transferred by: ademotte
Lineage: AKG-414(?)/Sony D-5 => analog master => 1st
gen. cassette (Maxell XLII) => CDR => EAC => Audigy
Audio Cleaning Lab => WAV => FLAC Frontend
The "Friends" include Eric Clapton, Robert Cray,
Phil Collins, Sunnyland Slim, Sugar Blue, James
Cotton, Konika Kress, and Richard Cousins as well as
Buddy's backing band
Disc info:
(1) Intro (1:23)
(2) Every Day I Have The Blues (7:42)
(3) My Time After Awhile =>
Blue Monday =>
Stone Crazy (19:46)
(4) Funky Jam (11:41)
(5) Buddy talking (1:50)
(6) Going Down (Inst.) =>
Sunshine Of Your Love (Inst.) (5:59)
(7) Sweet Little Angel (7:15)
Total time: 55:37
File size:
FLAC compressed (level 8): 342 mb
Uncompressed: 561 mb
Notes:
On Easter Sunday 1987, Eric Clapton appeared at the
Rosemont Horizon for his only Chicago stop on the
"August" tour; he had a four-piece band that
included Phil Collins on drums. Robert Cray and his
band were the opening act. It was the worst-kept
secret in Chicago that weekend that EC would be
jamming with Buddy Guy during his final set at The
Limelight (a nightclub on Chicago's north side)
after the Rosemont show ended.
The taper bolted out of the Horizon and beat the
traffic back to the city in order to set up and gain
a good taping spot for the EC set (I considered
posting his Horizon tape as well, but the sound is
not nearly as good, I can't find the second encore,
and there are already a few soundboards in
circulation from that week that have the same
setlist).
The recording, after some tweaking, is excellent.
The jam session is very entertaining -- it's very
much a Buddy Guy show in that he veered all over the
map without a setlist or clueing his bandmates in to
where he was headed -- and the lineup is amazing:
Chicago blues legends Sunnyland Slim, James Cotton,
and Sugar Blue took part in addition to Clapton,
Cray, and of course the world-renowned blues drummer
Phil Collins. Every time I listen to this I'm amused
at the idea of Phil Collins backing this lineup on
blues songs he probably had never heard before, but
he actually did a pretty good job.
I'm not sure whether both Sugar Blue and James
Cotton were onstage through the whole set or if they
rotated out between songs; I'm certain that Clapton,
Cray, and Phil Collins played for the full hour.
One additional note is that Clapton's and Cray's
guitars are not as prominent as one would hope for.
The overall mix is a little rough (Buddy's vocal and
guitar dominate), but after all, it's a blues show
in a nightclub and one can't have everything.
* Conversion notes: I used Audigy to: (1) Reduce
portions of low end slightly to eliminate
distortion; (2) reduce 1 khz band to reduce echo;
(3) increase 6 khz and 13 khz bands to emphasize
guitar (particularly Clapton's); (4) increase 800 hz
band slightly to offset midrange loss from #2 above.
I also applied light dehissing/noise reduction and
slightly increased stereo separation. There is still
a little hiss; I was afraid to remove too much and
dull the sound.
There is no artwork -- would appreciate if someone
made some and posted it in this thread. I am
probably wrong on some aspects of the setlist;
please feel free to provide corrections.