Rating: NNNN
Badass bluesman Junior Wells may not have been the greatest harp player, nor the most inventive song stylist or even the sharpest dresser on Chicago’s Southside scene, but onstage at Theresa’s Lounge nobody could work a crowd like Wells. His best-ever studio work, 1965’s Hoodoo Man Blues, was intended to recreate the atmosphere of one of his rowdy sets at Theresa’s, but with Live At Theresa’s 1975, that’s exactly what you get, complete with off-the-cuff stage banter, birthday shout-outs, spilled beer and all. As usual, Wells has a tough-rockin’ band behind him, with Byther Smith and Phil Guy trading stinging guitar licks. But it’s clearly Junior’s show, and this recording gives you a front-row seat for all the unruly antics at a time when women still made up at least half the audience at Chicago blues shows.
