The Blues Project — Live at the Cafe Au Go Go

This was actually the music that got me started with my relatively recent fascination with all things Al Kooper. While of course I knew his name and some of the legend, especially his work with Dylan and Mike Bloomfield. Around the same time that I ventured to listen to the first “Super Session” album, I tripped on a digital copy of this while looking for something else. If I ever saw a record by The Blues Project back in the old days, I’m sure I paid it no mind, having no idea who was involved or what the quality of such a generically titled outfit would be. If anything, I would have rejected the group’s name as a bit twee, some academic white group’s take on the blues. But back then, I didn’t know about Al Kooper.

On the heels of having my mind blown by Super Session, I found that digital copy of this 1968 album and I was really intrigued. This isn’t the most polished production by a long shot, it’s not even the most soulful blues necessarily, but there’s an energy there, a drive that really attracted me. And after I’d played this and “Super Session” a bit (more than a bit for “Super Session” – I was genuinely obsessed for a piece), I started picking up everything I could find by Kooper, Bloomfield and anyone else affiliated with them. So when I found this on a trip to Shady Dog last summer, I could hardly snap it up fast enough. Gimme that on vinyl.

The tracks are largely the same as those of my other Blues Project album with an impossibly long democratic title – and that’s all right. These live versions have a spark. Also: this has the only version of Donovan’s “Catch the Wind” I ever want to hear.

Side note: I don’t know what Verve made their records from, where they were pressed, what deal they made with the devil – and I don’t care. It almost doesn’t matter what it looks like, how buffed or scratched it looks – these old Verve discs always play well.