Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Bonnie Raitt with Buddy Guy & Junior Wells - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 12-17-1974

Here's another one of the "PBS Soundstage" shows that had an interesting guest star. In this case, the main star was Bonnie Raitt, and the guest star was the blues duo of Buddy Guy and Junior Wells.

Raitt's first album came out in 1971. For her first few albums, she leaned more heavily into the blues than she did with her later albums. So it's not too surprising that when she was allowed to pick guest stars for her Soundstage episode, she chose the likes of Guy and Wells. Even long after her more bluesy phase of her career, she's frequently made sure to pay tribute to her musical roots. 

Guy and Wells had a musical partnership that lasted decades, with Guy playing lead guitar and Wells playing harmonica, and both of them singing. The concert started with just Guy as the star, singing "Man of Many Words," a song from the 1972 album "Play the Blues" by Guy and Wells. Then Wells joined him on stage and sang the next two songs. 

After that, Guy and Wells left and most of the show was devoted to a fairly typical Bonnie Raitt set for the time. Note that she did a version of "Don't Fight It," a Wilson Pickett song she never put on album. But for the second to last song, "Everybody's Crying Mercy," Wells returned to the stage and sang the song with her. Then Guy also got back on stage and the three of them finished the concert with "Long Lonesome Road."

The music here is unreleased. But the sound quality is excellent.

This album is 58 minutes long.

01 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
02 Man of Many Words (Buddy Guy)
03 talk (Buddy Guy & Junior Wells)
04 Little by Little (Buddy Guy & Junior Wells)
05 talk (Buddy Guy & Junior Wells)
06 I Wouldn't Have to Sing the Blues (Buddy Guy & Junior Wells)
07 talk (Buddy Guy & Junior Wells)
08 Mystery Train (Buddy Guy & Junior Wells)
09 Love Me like a Man (Bonnie Raitt)
10 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
11 Any Day Woman (Bonnie Raitt)
12 Under the Falling Sky (Bonnie Raitt)
13 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
14 Write Me a Few of Your Lines - Kokomo Blues (Bonnie Raitt)
15 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
16 Women Be Wise (Bonnie Raitt)
17 talk (Bonnie Raitt)
18 Angel from Montgomery (Bonnie Raitt)
19 Don't Fight It (Bonnie Raitt)
20 talk (Bonnie Raitt with Buddy Guy & Junior Wells)
21 Everybody's Crying Mercy (Bonnie Raitt & Junior Wells)
22 Long Lonesome Road (Bonnie Raitt with Buddy Guy & Junior Wells)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/pkU5F8m2

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/U6yPVcbWMGXDmVP/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. That's Raitt with Junior Wells on harmonica. I wish I could have found a picture with Buddy Guy in it too, but this was the best one I could find.

2 comments:

  1. This is fantastic! Can never get too much BR. Thanks so much, G.

    ReplyDelete