There can't be too many musicians who have released their fourth albums at the age of 19, but for Canadian blues singer/guitarist
Jimmy Bowskill, this is his first disc not to be self-released, as he has signed to
Ruf Records after three albums on his own, starting with
Old Soul, which came out when he was about 13. Now a veteran,
Bowskill proves to be a blues-rock player with a power trio on this concert date. His basic style had its heyday two decades before his birth, and that style is suggested by the album cover painted by poster artist
Bob Masse, who is very much in the '60s San Francisco tradition. It is psychedelic rock, as played by the
Jimi Hendrix Experience and
Cream, among others.
Bowskill's rhythm section of bassist
Wayne Deadder and drummer
Dan Neill provide support, but the show is all about
Bowskill and his electric guitar playing, on which he uses a lot of effects, with a heavy sustain when he isn't using a slide. He also sings in a soulful high tenor. Other major influences are suggested by the inclusion of two songs by
Free and one from the
Peter Green era of
Fleetwood Mac. This music now fits into the "blues" category, but back in 1969, it would have been called rock.
Bowskill finally does nod to blues with a ten-minute encore version of
B.B. King's
"Three O'Clock in the Morning," but that's really the exception that proves the rule. This is blues-rock as they used to play it at the Fillmore, even if they stopped doing so a long time before
Jimmy Bowskill made his appearance across the Canadian border. ~ William Ruhlmann
