Music : Riding With the King

Rating: - Riding with the King in a wheelchair
I really wanted to like this album. Two icons of R&B getting together again to cover some classic tracks. Unfortunately, this album is anaesthetic, tame and bland. Maybe 4 out of the 12 tracks are worth listening to. Clapton mumbles away in the background and spoils perfectly good music with muffled vocals and most of the track choice is at best uninspired.

Probably the notable exception is "Key to the Highway", which, along with "Riding with the King" is among the few highlights of this album. The musicianship is brilliant but it's so TAME!

What this pair need to to is get up on stage with George Thorogood and hammer it out instead of sitting in their rocking chairs telling everyone what fine guitarists they are while they pluck a few fine chords. BB King did it much better with U2. Shame that this isn't up to the same standard.

A frustrating album, could have been, should have been so much better.

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Rating: - More grit
This is somewhere between 3 & 4 stars for me, it has some great moments, but overall doesn't quite add up to the sum of its parts.

The good first:
There is some lovely blues on here and its all well played by Clapton and King with a supporting cast of top notch musicians. These includes Steve Gadd, Joe Sample, Nathan East, Jimmie Vaughan and Andy Fairweather Low. The best tracks are the two semi-acoustic tracks 'Key to the Highway' and 'Worried life Blues' and the romping 'Days Of Old'. This track in particular is reminisant of some B B Kings swinging earlier material. A great track.

The not so good:
For my taste, with exception of about five tracks, its a little over-produced. For what is a essentially a blues album its all just a little to clinical for me, and reading the credits for the tracks you will find that on 10 of the 12 Paul Waller is credited with 'Drum programming'. Now that I just don't understand. I have no doubt that Paul Waller is a talented man (you have to be to work in this company) but why do you need a 'drum programmer' (whatever that is) when you have Steve Gadd anyway?

So overall this is a good album, certainly worth getting, but there are better blues albums out there.

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Rating: - dissappointed russ
As this is sold as a DVD I expected some film footage as well. Unfortunately there is not a single second of video on this DVD? and no picture gallery either. Next time I'll have to read the label more carefully!

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Rating: - That's the ticket
What a great contrasting sound and style on this album, as BB and Clapton complement each other.

"Key to the Highway" swings along in country blues call & answer style and what about the soul standard of "Hold on I'm comin"?
The first time you listen to this, because of its low key start, takes you by surprise when the penny drops and you're listening to a classic being driven like a steam hammer.

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Rating: - A nice little blues/rock record
This album opens with a great rendition of John Hiatt's 1983 rocker "Riding With The King", which has very little to do with blues, but who cares...B.B. King is entitled to a bit of a break now and again, I suppose!

There is a lot of genuine blues here as well, however, and the eight-minute "Three O'Clock Blues" burns with long guitar solos from both men. Other highlights include a good rendition of Big Bill Broonzy's "Key To The Highway", a song which Clapton has recorded again and again for over 30 years, a nice, acoustic "Worried Life Blues", a seven-minute version of King's own "When My Heart Beats Like A Hammer", and the best song on the album, a delightfully swinging "Help The Poor", Charles Singleton's 60s classic.

There are a few clunkers here..."Marry You" and "I Wanna Be" are a ouple of bland, repetitive dime-a-dozen rock songs, and the novelty-like "Days Of Old" isn't destined for classic-status either, but most of the album works really well, although a handful of weak songs are a few too many.
It's not the grittiest blues record I've ever heard (or the bluesiest), but it's a nice listen while it lasts, even if it fails to live up to its enormous potential.
3 3/4 stars. Good enough.