Two new soundboard-quality recordings have surfaced recently to shine light The Red Devils’ 1992 opening slots for the Allman Brothers. The Sept. 1 Richmond, Va., and Sept. 4 Charlotte, N.C., recordings represent the band’s sixth and eighth opening spots (by our count) for the Brothers.
These recordings document the band working through their setlists, and winning over crowds with their hardworking blues. From the very top, the audio quality is quite high, making these discs an audio treat. That there is no crowd noise coming into the mix is unnerving, as it sounds as though the band finishes songs to complete silence.
Both shows begin with a sturdy shuffle, here called “Hey Baby,” but in reality a mad-libs version of the warhorse “Riding in the Moonlight.” The Richmond gig finds the band sounding quite tentative — solid blues to be sure, but no real fireworks. Just three days later, however, the same tune is crunchier and bouncier, with a pounding two-handed shuffle by Bill Bateman, hot turnarounds and leadwork by Paul Size and a much more confident vocal performance by Lester Butler.
In Richmond, a three-song section from the just-released “King King” is a mixed bag: “Goin’ to the Church” is a rush job, while “She’s Dangerous” doesn’t quite drive, and ends abruptly. There are flashes of brilliance, however, on a jam-length “Devil Woman.” Jonny Ray Bartel’s bass is dirty and rubbery, giving the tune a grinding funk feel. Size plays with the groove, until his ecstatic solo. Butler even raps a new verse to the song, hitting on many of his favorite stand-by lyrics. “Devil Woman” is even stronger a few days later, as the band pushes it past the eight-minute mark.
The Charlotte set also features “Red Headed Woman,” a fun shuffle in Hollywood Fats mode. The disc wraps up with a frenetic, ringing “Backstroke,” Butler seemingly grabbing words out of the air to keep up. The song fades out just as it’s warming up, so no telling if Butler and Bateman pulled off the same harp/drums breakdown that would blow away the PinkPop crowd in Europe some seven months later.
It’s only right that listeners might hear a nervousness in these discs. While their headlining gigs found the band preaching to the choir, and their festival slots were in front of open-minded audiences ready to be blown away by new music, warming up for the legendary Allmans couldn’t have been easy for the Devils.
The quality of these performances, however, most assuredly won them new fans.
If you’ve made it this far, enjoy this edit of all of Butler’s between-song patter from the Charlotte performance.
This entry was posted on December 20, 2010 at 3:12 pm and is filed under red devils with tags 1992, allman brothers, bill bateman, bo diddley, bootleg, hollywood fats, jonny ray bartel, lester butler, mp3, paul size, red devils.	You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Many thanks for the MP3 of ‘I’m Tryin’. Paul Size is playing for his life here, as my old friend Duster Bennett used to say.
And then Lester plays a typically GREAT solo. I’m finding it hard to listen to other players at the moment – If they don’t GET IT like this, then I don’t want to know.
NOTE: I found this by way of searching for a video of ‘She’s Dangerous’, as I just now found two YouTube videos of that song. There’s one that was posted by REDHOUSEGEERT that you all have to see if you haven’t already…Butler seems to channel Butterfield at one point – and that’s the blues for sure. I saw Butter in London in 1984 (??) and he almost blew me out of the room with the intensity of his vocal and harp.