Various - Exile On Blues St

Year of Release: 2003
Label: Telarc
Catalog Number: 83571
Format: CD
Total Time: 48:28:00

I am a big fan of the Rolling Stones and I always have been. When I saw Exile On Blues St. in my mailbox it got my attention. I must say that I am not exactly the perfect candidate to review a tribute to the Stones' Exile On Main St because I never heard it in its entirety, the only song I remember is "Tumbling Dice." This is the type of release I unfortunately look upon with both curiosity and pessimism, which is nothing new for this writer. I cannot help this attitude, there have been far too many of these albums coming out recently and more than I ever expected from Telarc. This is the best one yet if you were to compare all of them this year, which does not necessarily mean that it is a great compilation either.

If you like modern electric blues most of this is very entertaining. If you were to compare it to the original album by the Rolling Stones, I am not sure there would be any comparisons to make. The group of musicians gathered for this session is out of this world, you will recognize the names ?Thackery, Walker, Benoit, Castro, Shannon, Layton; the list is long and impressive. Regardless of the talent available, it never seems to be enough to make these tributes come together as you would hope. I think this label should step back and take a closer look at what they are doing with all of these tributes and concentrate more on each individual artists' projects, they certainly have the cream of the crop to work with.

[Like Keith, I'm not familiar with the Stones' Exile , but I will note that not every track has been covered here, just a little more than half, as Exile? was a 2 LP set when it was released in 1972? -ed.]

Tracklisting:
Ventilator Blues (Lucky Peterson) (5:37) / All Down The Line (Christine Ohlman) (4:22) / Rip This Joint (Tommy Castro) (3:29) / Sweet Black Angel (Otis Taylor) (4:00) / Sweet Virginia (Jeff Lang) (6:15) / Tumbling Dice (Andrea Re) (4:16) / Shake Your Hips (Tab Benoit) (6:05) / Shine A Light (Joe Luis Walker) (5:50) / Happy (Deborah Coleman) (3:16) / Rocks Off (Jimmy Thackery) (6:38)

Musicians:


Discography:
Various - Exile On Blues St (2003)

Genre: Other

Origin VA

Added: September 7th 2003
Reviewer: Keith "Muzikman" Hannaleck
Score:
Artist website: www.telarc.com
Hits: 2108
Language: english