Blues at Sunrise

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Title: Blues at Sunrise
By: King, Albert
Released by: Stax
Released on: 1988
Rating (out of 10): 8
Date: 10/26/2001

Overlooked Blues King

Born Albert Nelson in the same Mississippi town as B.B. King (no relation), Albert King taught himself to play guitar on his own homemade cigar box instrument until he got his first real axe at the age of 21.

The left-handed King didn’t restring the guitar, but turned it over and taught himself to play it upside down. Inspired to switch from gospel music to blues primarily by Blind Lemon Jefferson, King will also forever be associated with his trademark Gibson Flying V guitar, nicknamed “Lucy.”

Albert King is far more influential than most people realize. Even young people who think they are influenced primarily from guitar masters like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan may not realize that each of these players incorporated much of Albert King’s style themselves.

Though King moved from Mississippi and Arkansas to the blues scenes in Chicago and St. Louis, he really hit it big when he signed with Stax Records and recorded with their house band, Booker T. and the MG's. Here, King’s recordings like “Laundromat Blues” and “Born Under a Bad Sign” got him noticed in both the soul and rock worlds.

This landed him a historic first—the first blues artist to appear at Fillmore West, ironically appearing the same night that Jimi Hendrix opened there in 1968.

Never known particularly for his voice, there is no one who can top Albert King for intensity and passion on the guitar, and this is evidenced on Blues at Sunrise.

You can hear a similar pattern with nearly every song on this live album, recorded in 1973 in Switzerland at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Near the beginning, the song may sound like many you’ve heard before as Albert dutifully sings the lyrics, but somewhere he turns the song over to his guitar, "Lucy," and she transports you to another level.

You will also hear typical Memphis soul groove-style here, as King’s hard blues-style guitar and singing blend in perfectly with the horns and sax accompaniment.

Generally, live blues albums are the best renditions you can get on CD or vinyl. They may not be as polished as a studio album, but they just seem more appropriate and real for blues recordings. Studios remain far too sterile as a blues audience, because the great bluesmen play off the emotions of the crowd.

King himself describes the Montreux scene: “. . . the crowd was fantastic. Man, I felt like a boy again.” That’s what a blues audience can do to a performance—it adds the spirit; and the blues artist takes off to new ground that can only be imitated again but never duplicated. This live album does soar in a few places.

“Don’t Burn Down the Bridge (Cause You Might Wanna Come Back Across)” is one of the high points. The subject matter is standard blues material; it advises a girl who has a decent man not to stray and look for greener pastures on the other side of the tracks.

After one verse, Albert wails into his guitar, and it takes over. You’ll be reminded of Hendrix’s distortions here as King masterfully bends his strings with a great deal of force. The audience is now his!

“I Believe to My Soul” and “For the Love of a Woman” are rather standard blues numbers you won’t find listed as greatest hits on any Albert King album, but in concert, artists have to deal with pacing and can’t hit you with a barrage of the really intense numbers. “I Believe to My Soul” is a slower Ray Charles song. “For the Love of a Woman” is relatively lightweight, with an upbeat guitar portion that excites the crowd but doesn’t extend King’s energy.

It’s as if these two songs are taking a couple of musical breaks before hitting the next two heavy songs.

“Blues at Sunrise” is an original composition by King, and is one of the highlights of Blues at Sunrise. This rendition demonstrates one reason I love live blues albums so much. Hear Albert ask the engineer to turn down the organ a bit so he can “groove” with it.

Again, it's fairly standard blues material, talking about looking for a lover who has left him.

The sun rise in the east, it sets deeply in the west
The sunrise in the east, it sets deeply in the west
I’ve been lookin' for my lover, and I haven’t found her.

King yells for the engineer to adjust the settings, then he begins to really crank it. The guitar becomes a driving force that the listener must deal with. It demands attention with its full-toned intensity; we also hear Don Kinsey answering the challenge and “competing” with King for attention on his guitar.

Back and forth they go, and we are truly enriched. Just when you think you have the patterns figured out, King totally thrashes expectations and plays an octave above with new flourishes. You can tell by the audience's and by King’s reaction that he’s enjoying this. No one “beats” the King on his turf!

“I’ll Play the Blues for You” (written by Jerry Beach) is one of Albert King’s signature songs, and is my favorite track on Blues at Sunrise.

After singing a bit, King stops and just talks to the audience over a soft background about loneliness and how he understands how that is. He continues singing:

Ain’t got no big name, I ain’t a big star
I’ll play the blues for you on my guitar
And all your loneliness I got to soothe,
I’ll play the blues for you
. . . excuse me . . .

And now "I'll Play the Blues for You" really begins as “Lucy” takes over and sings the rest of the song more eloquently than any tormented human voice could do. Listen closely; this portion can transport you to another reality.

After two heavy songs, King needs a light one to give himself, the band, and the audience a breather. “Little Brother (Make a Way)” fulfills this function. This is an inconsequential track, but we have one last heavyweight to end Blues at Sunrise.

Although it was made famous by The Doors, “Roadhouse Blues” was written by Albert King. He begins slowly until halfway through. At this point Albert lets his guitar do the singing, and he absolutely cuts loose, freeing the guitar to play the incomparable one-note distortions that are Albert King’s definitive trademark.

When you see me coming on, Baby, I want you to raise your women high
When you see me coming on, Baby, I want you to raise your women high
But when it’s time to leave, girl, I want you to hang your head and cry.

King ends the song with some screeching and mournful licks that pump up the crowd into an emotional frenzy. I’m not sure what would happen to a person who somehow instantly was plopped into the middle of "Roadhouse Blues" without the build-up. That could be a scary deal.

For that matter, you may not want to have someone just listen to the second half of “Roadhouse Blues”; the intensity could be too much to handle.

One problem with "Roadhouse Blues" is that Blues at Sunrise ends here really abruptly, and it takes a few minutes to catch your breath.

Overall, this is one of the better live blues albums available. It’s a little uneven in quality, but four great tracks make up for the weaker ones. If you’re seriously looking for a representative album for the legendary Albert King, Blues at Sunrise should be on your short list along with Rhino’s Ultimate Collection.

© Copyright CultureDose.com 10/26/2001

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