Charlie Musselwhite Live at IMAC, Huntington NY 1996-11-22 **An incredible evening** complete show from great master AUD tape

Welcome to the first major project in months.

I have been squirreled away for the last six weeks in order to bring you this gem. This is one of the nicest blues harp concerts you are ever likely to hear.

During the 1940's, if you wanted to buy a record you went into a music shop, where they sold instruments as well as recordings. You could ask for classical music or for a kind of beat, if you wanted something else. There were individual listening booths. Inside was a wind-up or electric 78 rpm player where the clerk brought you in the record and you could decide then if you wanted it. Department stores also sold records at record counters.

In my part of the world, by the late 1960's and early 1970's there weren't many music shops left to get records, and almost no specialty record shops. You went to department stores, with names like Macy's, Korvettes, S Kleins, Scranton Dry... even supermarkets and Sears Roebuck carried vinyl and 45 rpm records (so-called "singles"). Most LP records during that time period were less than $5USD, and 45 rpm records (remember those?) were about a dollar.

There was always a closeout section. 45's were three to a long bag for 99 cents without their wrappers, each of the three 45's were seperated from the other by heat sealing the bag a few times. In the closeout section were also rock albums by unknown artists, for $2USD or less. Some of those albums are now worth a fortune, because they were good and didn't sell well. Who knew at the time?

There was always a blues section. Since those albums were in the closeout section anyway, and cheap, I learned to experiment and got to love the blues. I heard people playing great music with strange names like Jimmy Witherspoon, Brownie McGhee, and of course Charlie Musselwhite.

There was this compilation album "Blues From Chicago". Charlie's playing sounded so much larger than life to me. I had to wait over 25 years to actually see, hear, and meet him. At this concert I learned that Charlie and the two other artists featured were all cheated out of their fair share.

That IS the blues.

As for this concert you are about to hear, all I can say is wow...

The show itself comes down on you like a velvet steamroller. The playing is strong and elegant, and the recording captures every nuance for the most part. It's never flashy, no one is "hotdogging", and no one is out to impress anybody else. Charlie Musselwhite is a damn nice person, and don't you mess with him. He came to the edge of the stage between sets and knelt down, shook everybody's hand, and spoke like a common human being. I'd have to echo some comments from what was spoken about his music - "It's the cultural opposite of Blues Traveler". Actually, he thought their playing was fast but sloppy.

You can take that for what it's worth. He's the one carrying the .44. If that offends you, listen to the sample. If you have to, go away. He doesn't need me to defend him.

I have done the best I could with the setlist. Please provide corrections.

SETLIST

Band Warmup
Intro of CM - Rough Rider For The Blues
Country Boy
.44 Special
Both Sides Of The Fence
Highway 51
She May Be Your Woman
Can't You Hear Me Talking Baby

Intermission

Katie Mae
In Your Darkest Hour
Unknown Song
High Temperature
She Still Looks Good To Me
Natural Born Lover
Help Me
Unknown Song
Encore Instrumental

*Important notes - please read* Restoring this concert was an act of love. During "She May Be Your Woman" and "Can't You Hear Me Talking Baby" something happened to the microphone. Perhaps it slipped, perhaps not. The music became extremely distant and most of what was audible was the idiot behind us clapping and war-whooping. It could just be he was leaning over my shoulder, I don't know. "Can't You Hear Me..." is one of the better songs in the show. I went in with Sound Forge and edited out over 300 claps, point by point individually. The remainder of the music was enhanced as much as possible. That took the better part of six weeks. There's a sample below showing before and after. Also, the applause following this song is unedited so you can hear what the master sounded like.

Also, the recording level was jarred during the first 1:20 of "Katie Mae". That was also brought up as much as possible.

Otherwise this recording rates an A IMNSHO. Listen to the sample.

Technical data:

(prob) Sony D3 cassette with Fisher German lapel mike ->Tascam 112MK II cassette deck ->Layla Echo 3G ->Sound Forge 6.0 ->Flac Frontend 1.1.3 kevek 6 with sectors aligned and verified, tags added, replaygain, treated as one album