OTIS RUSH

personnel:
Otis Rush
plus pickup band (not introduced by name):
??? - guitar
[David Maxwell ?] - piano
??? - bass
??? - drums

venue: Nightstage
location: Cambridge MA USA
date: 1989-01-07 [January 7, 1989]
episode: 1st set

source: audience MASTER
recording location: seated up against railing, front of balcony; mikes resting on floor underneath table, peeking out over lip of platform
recording gear: Nakamichi 300 microphones (cardioid capsules) > Sony WM-D6 (dolby B enabled)
lineage: cassette MASTER (pb on Nakamichi 480 2-head cassette deck, dolby B on, azimuth manually adjusted) > Sound Forge 4.5 [digital conversion] > CDR > Exact Audio Copy [wav files extracted uncompressed] > DeGlitch [glitches detected & corrected] > Traders' Little Helper [flac files level 8 created, SBEs checked, checksums created] > torrent creation > www
total running time: 71' 33"
file size: 382 MB
sample rate: 16 bit / 44.1 kHz [CD compliant]
imaging: stereo
sound quality: 9 (out of 10)
recorded and mastered: Isotope Feeney
title: Rush Hour
label: Mighty Big IF
artwork: yes

01 Tops [instrumental]
- - changing string
02 All Your Love (I Miss Loving)
03 Please Love Me
04 I Wonder Why [instrumental]
05 Let's Have A Natural Ball
06 Sweet Sixteen
07 I Got My Mojo Working
08 Double Trouble
09 Easy Go [instrumental]

PERSONNEL NOTES
Although Otis Rush solicits a round of applause for them after almost every song, bandmembers are not introduced by name (which OR may not have known/remembered). There are some things in this universe that mankind is fated never to know, and the identities of these musicians may be such a thing. Having said that, it occurs to me that the keyboard player may well have been David Maxwell - - - not that I specifically remember his being there, but he was a ubiquitous presence on the local blues scene, and he worked with OR pretty regularly in the '90s. I assume the other players were also local dudes and not longterm OR sidemen - - - as evidenced by the fact that before each song The Master quietly demonstrated to them how it's supposed to go (cf. PERFORMANCE NOTES below).

PERFORMANCE NOTES
As is the wont for this sort of thing, I think the [pickup] band warmed things up with a few generic blues workouts before Otis Rush took the stage. These did not get recorded.

OR broke a string during the first song, so there are a few minutes of string changing / audience chitchat before second song begins.

My favourite piquant bits --- you can hear them before almost every number --- are Otis Rush's strategy for playing 'seat of the pants' with a pickup band: coaching the guys with quick hush-hush pre-song tutorials, faintly playing a smattering of the next song's groove to make sure they get the memo. Class is in session.

OR seems to have a habit of abruptly stopping songs without giving the band much warning, so some of the endings are a bit ragged.

MIXING NOTES
The vocals = slightly low in the house mix - - - typical for that venue. But there isn't that much singing going on anyway. Even the songs with lyrics just seem to be pegs upon which to hang long minutes of stinging lead guitar, which come across loud & clear on this capture.

WHAT'S THE RUSH? DEPT.
Please don't post this elsewhere, let me do it.

- IF -




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