Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There are legends and then there is Canned Heat, the timeless Rock/Blues of one of nature’s most elegantly driven bands. A group that has Woodstock in their veins, that gives the Boogie the respectability and honour it deserves and to which if never have seen live only edges the musical psyche towards self denial like oblivion.
The road has been a long one, it has curved, straightened and been lovingly restored, almost left to become irreparable and the asphalt start to show cracks and weeds to poke their way up behind the music express that has been going 50 years. Yet throughout it all, the juggernaut has kept going and in the latest release from the Songs From The Road series from Ruf Records, the proof of such longevity is there for the asking.
Trends revolutionise, what is cool and enjoyable one minute sinks into the void the next, the hip and the strong somehow falter as the fight back against the previous generation’s tastes and unwanted experiences takes hold and the seemingly banal strokes the ears of those coming up behind.
Not for Canned Heat though, the banal has always been kept in a locked cage and taunted with the great lyrical stick, knowing full well that the predictable has no teeth. It has little appetite to take on one of the big dogs in the room, a dog that growls and barks with purpose but one that is also able to bring much joy to those that unleash it and allow it the freedom to be seen as giant ball of musical greatness.
The West Coast legends are perhaps not easy to capture live, the sound too beautifully raw to contain, too uncontainable to be restricted like the grovelling animal of banality that flutters round nodding its head at every demand and for that this live release is to be congratulated for its sound, its live passion and most of the way it sets the band’s heart free.
With songs such as Don’t Know Where She Went (She Split), So Sad (The World’s in a Tangle), the superb Chicken Shack Boogie, Cristo Redentor and the ever cool Amphetamine Annie being included in the live recording, there is so much to thank the Gods the look after the health and wellbeing of such artists and the lyrical, musical ability that they worked hard at to bring to the venues and the greater public’s attention.
Songs From The Road, there hasn’t been a highway constructed yet that can tame Canned Heat. Marvellous and enlightening.
Canned Heat: Songs From The Road is released on August 10th.
Ian D. Hall