In this volume we get back to New York’s Lone Star Café; the
line-up for this gig was
Mick Taylor on guitar and vocals, Max Middleton on keyboards, Shane
Fontayne on guitar, Wilbur Bascomb on bass and Eric Parker on drums. For this
show two recordings were already circulating: one is high-pitched (hissy) and
compressed but with a very good quality of Mick Taylor’s voice. The other is
lossless but muddy and a little saturated.
Different possibilities
to upgrade the sound were tested. The best result came from combining both
sources. The merging of both is my favorite but it doesn’t work for all tracks
because of the saturation on the bass guitar in the middle of the recording, so
only 4 tracks were kept.
The mixes
are very interesting and here, to complete them, a short banter from the
Maidenlane recording was used. For this reason, this compilation appears in the
‘Maidenlane Frankenstein’s Versions’ series even if the bulk come from already
circulating sources. As usual all tracks have been reworked (de-clicked,
channels equalized…) but the end result is quite fine. This concert has the
shortest version of Can’t You Hear Me Knocking ever, lasting less than 4
minutes.