Lightnin Willie & The Poor Boys

WHEN Lightnin' Willie Hermes casually announced from the stage at Barrels, that 'this is a band that plays American music', he missed one important point.

He forgot to say that they pretty much cover ALL the bases. Summing up a night spent in the company of Willie, Giles King, Spy, and Franck Rouleau is like trying to explain what it's like to be caught up in a hurricane. After the maelstrom has passed, you have to ask yourself did that really?

The night got off to a truly rock n roll beginning with the band stuck in traffic. But where justice delayed is justice denied this delay only served to heighten the expectations of an audience that travelled from north, south and even offshore.

Willie and the boys take the stage in much the same way as a marauding army takes a city. A 'how ya doin', an uneccessary apology for the lateness and then the stun grenade of Rhythm Oil was lobbed into the mix. Resistance was useless, surrender unconditional when faced with the guitar of Lightnin Willie, the harp of Suffolk-born Giles King whose 'other band' Hucklebuck are already casusing waves of their own - little wonder when amongst their number is a harp player who seems to draw on the devil himself for inspiration- French drummer Franck Rouleau who never missed a beat (or a trick) all night and the bass of Spy, who confirmed the impression made on the band's previous visit that genius may be an overworked word but it may just apply in his case.

"Eyes In The Back Of My Head" was the song of a band who only knows one way to go, straight ahead, full speed. It's rock n roll took us back to the 50s', to the kind of 'joint' your 'mama' warned you about. Whether they played blues, country or rock n roll, the need to play live was all-consuming. The night was a three-hour love affair with tracks like Stevie Ray Vaughan's "I'm Crying" and Peter Green's "Loved Another One" acting as Cupid's arrows. With songs like "Don't Let Her Go", the four showed that they are all natural showman, they love being up there. It would be a bad day for fish stocks if any of the four took up angling, they played the audience with skill and artistry. During "20 Flight Rock" the urge to jive became almost irresistible. The first half drew to a close with Dylan's "Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum". As the song built layer on layer it showed a collective strength, any weak link would have been cruelly exposed, there wasn't one. This is a rock solid band. The break was ushered in by some sweet Texas swing, all that was missing from Thinking Of You was a campfire and about 10,000 acres of prairie.

Refreshed after a break (the audience as much as the band) it was now time to get down to some 'serious boogie'. If the first set was white-hot, the second threatened to take the paint off the walls. The floor shook, the walls rattled and the band rolled on. After an opening 'sandwich' of "Leaning Out My Window" and "What I Say" (a sincere tribute to Ray Charles) things began to ratchet up. The bluesy "I Woke Up This Morning And I Found Myself In Love", was as long as its title suggests but the roars that greeted it, suggested that it was over too quickly, no-one was going anywhere.

The 'moment of truth' however came in an unexpected way. The band left the stage and, little did we know but Lightnin Willie went with them and we were privileged to hear Willie Hermes, true blues man. "Cryin" came straight from his heart and soul. He stood in front of us and just picked his way through a song which grew and grew until it filled the room. You could see reflected in his eyes the spirit of Muddy Waters and Johnny Cash, with them Willie Hermes is a fellow traveller. But the band weren't finished, it wasn't that they were reluctant to leave the stage, they just flat refused to, not that anyone was asking them to. In an encore which was longer than many performances, Rouleau, like some latter-day musical Lazarus picked up his drum and walked - right through the crowd. A conglomerate of Muddy Waters' Satisified, Couldn't Do Nothing and finally "Bye, Bye" brought to an end a night that redefined live music. These boys make Springsteen look like a shirker. You can bring together talented musicians but you can't make them a band. These four may only meet up sporadically but musically they've known each other all their lives. The great news is that by his promised return Lightnin' Willie will have recorded a new album, The End Of The Street, which will feature the talents of Giles King. My advice is that they start reinforcing the studio now Lightnin's about to strike.

More info: http://www.movinmusic.co.uk/
 

 

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