POPA CHUBBY
Big Man, Big Guitar Live! (Blind Pig)
Reviewed by Eric Steiner

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Popa Chubby's fifth Blind Pig CD, Big Man Big Guitar, gives Popa Chubby (born Ted Horowitz in New York in 1960) a chance to strut his considerable guitar stuff. There's a dozen forceful cuts on this 72-minute CD recorded on tour in France - he routinely sells out concert halls all over Europe. Blind Pig is also complementing the audio CD with a separate DVD with a different line up of songs that are not on Big Man, Big Guitar Live. The anthemic "Sweet Goddess Of Love and Beer" from his 1994 O-Keh/Sony CD, Booty and the Beast, gets the Popa Chubby treatment (solid vocals, muscular playing), as does a complete re-working of Howlin' Wolf's "Back Door Man," where Popa takes us on some wild twists and turns, but remains true to Wolf's original in the end. Blues fans are fortunate to have players like Walter Trout, Eric Sardinas and Popa Chubby - there's substance, flash and style in the way each of these guitarslingers attack the blues. I return to Popa Chubby's live CD for songs like "Motorcycle Mama" or the infectious boogie of "If The Diesel Don't Get You Then The Jet Fuel Will."

Track List:

Hey Joe * Dirty Lie * Back Door Man * I Can't See the Light of Day * If the Diesel Don't Get Then the Jet Fuel Will * Sweet Goddess of Love and Beer * Motorcycle Mama * Somebody Let the Devil Out * Hallelujah * Keep On the Sunny Side * Time is Killing Me * How'd a White Boy Get the Blues?

© 2005 - Eric Steiner