Marine Band 364 Bends

[Randy.Lilleston@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Randy Lilleston)]

 > Well, that pretty sums up Junior's show I saw in
 > Montreal the previous
 > night, except for the fact that he played even less
 > harp (a total of
 > about twelve bars for the whole evening, not counting
 > those he played
 > in the wrong key) and could not remember half the
 > lyrics to most of the song,
 > relying heavily instead on "groaning" and "hissing".
 > The disturbing thing is
 > that according to Tony Glover ("Blues Harp Songbook"),
 > Junior Wells is 59 years old now. The man I saw on stage Sunday night
 > looked, and acted, at least 70. Either Glover made a mistake or Junior
 > Wells has got serious health problems. In the end, the band (and the
crowd)
 > saved the show.

  Friends of mine who saw a recent show in suburban Washington, D.C. said the
same thing. Junior spent a large portion of his night there at the bar while
his band played most of the night. My friends guessed he actually sang about
20 minutes and hardly played harp at all.

 This has been the rap on Junior for years...that his live shows often are
forgettable these days. It's worth noting that despite his stature, he didn't
have a record contract for many years, and his current Telarc (I think) album
has gotten bad reviews almost all around.

 That's too bad.















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