© Bluestronomical Publishing Inc. 2007

Junior Wells
Live At Theresa’s 1975
Delmark DE-787

For most of their 2006 blues releases, Delmark dug back into their vaults. This essential disc completes a hat trick that began with Otis Rush’s All You Love I Miss Loving and Magic Slim/Joe Carter’s That Ain’t Right. Like the Rush CD, Live At Theresa’s was recorded by Ken Rasek. This may be the best of the three as it shows the friendly and neighborly atmosphere of a 1970s Chicago ghetto blues club being held at the helm by its commander.

The dignified CD is a testimony to a time when blues was a neighborhood institution played by people who had grown up together. The music was created as a means to free them of their pain. Bruce Iglauer recalls, "(Theresa’s) had wood paneling on the wall, beer signs and Christmas tinsel wrapped around the overhead pipes 12 months a year." There wasn’t a bandstand or a PA system for the featured entertainment. It was only a dollar to get in and the drinks were cheap. During Wells’ occupancy at Theresa’s, the club owner herself hired and paid the sidemen, so they weren’t officially his band. These recordings were made January 10 & 13, 1975. On these two winter evenings the hired help included Phil Guy guitar, Byther Smith guitar, Sammy Lawhorn guitar, Earnest Johnson bass, Vince Chapelle drums and Levi Warren drums.

Live At Theresa’s is gritty and slick at the same time. It presents traditional electric Chicago blues at its finest. What other art form unashamedly describes life via lyrics like ("If you love your woman / you love her with a thrill / because ifin’ you don’t / some other man will"). Not much of the background noise has been filtered out. In fact, you can hear the patrons in the background during the songs. All of Wells’ in-between song banter has been left in, too. It displays his charismatic interaction with his audience. For those who have followed Wells for years, these songs are like a homecoming. Not surprisingly "Juke" features the greatest amount of Wells’ harp which rolls you down the street like a garbage can tossed about in the wind. Throughout, Junior is in his element and having a great time as on the mellow paced "Goin’ Down Slow" where he admits, "You’ll have to excuse me coz I’m drunk."

Hoodoo Man Blues by Junior Wells was the first album to capture the live Chicago blues band sound in the studio. If released in 1975, Live At Theresa’s might have been the first live album to accurately capture the live Chicago blues band sound in a club. Though it doesn’t contain Wells’ best vocals and the audio isn’t up to today’s standard, Live At Theresa’s is everything a blues CD is supposed to be. Its analog album sound is raw, edgy and unpolished. Combined together, it’s the sweetest sound you’ll hear because it’s all about an experience that cannot be replicated.

- Tim Holek -


Southwest Blues CD Review - March 2007

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