Buddy Guy & Friends
The Limelight
Chicago, IL
Sunday, April 19, 1987

Lineage: AKG-414(?)/Sony D-5 => analog master => 1st gen. cassette (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

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): 297 mb
Uncompressed: 561 mb

Notes:
On Easter Sunday 1987, Eric Clapton appeared at the Rosemont Horizon (15 miles northwest of
Chicago) 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 perhaps the worst-
kept secret in Chicago that weekend that EC would be coming to jam with Buddy Guy during his
final set at The Limelight, a nightclub on Chicago's north side, after the Rosemont show ended.
The taper who recorded this actually 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 four 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 where he was headed -- and the lineup is truly amazing: Chicago blues
legends Sunnyland Slim, James Cotton, and Sugar Blue took part in the jam in addition to
Clapton, Cray, and of course the world-renowned blues drummer Phil Collins. Every time I listen
to this I'm newly amused at the idea of Phil Collins backing this lineup on a bunch of blues
songs he probably had never heard before, but he actually did a very credible 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 in the mix as one
would hope for. The overall mix is rougher than one would like (Buddy's vocal and guitar dominate
everything else), but after all, it's a blues show in a nightclub and one can't have everything.

* Conversion notes: I used Audigy for the following: (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.

Enjoy the show! This one is well worth having.