Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughan - In Session

Excellent Moments and a Very Enjoyable Listen! Recommended for Any Serious SRV Fans!

This album, IN SESSION by Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughan, is a very interesting listen for any serious fans of Stevie Ray, or any fans of the blues.

Because Stevie Ray Vaughan's playing style was greatly influenced by the less famous Albert King, at times it is hard to distinguish exactly who is playing lead guitar, but that just goes to show how great most of the music is on this CD.

The singing is overwhelmingly Albert King, since Stevie only sings lead vocals on the lone Stevie Ray song on this CD, "Pride and Joy," but I really like the singing of Albert King, and this album is a great introduction to Albert King's work, to me, since all the other songs are from Albert King's repertoire.

Sometimes the two guitarists are a little timid, starting out, but the longer the song goes on, the more comfortable they seem to get, and this CD has many long songs on it.

When I first saw this album, I thought it looked like some questionable bootleg, to me, and the CD cover art is definitely amateurish, but the CD liner notes briefly explain the scenario surrounding this recording, and the music makes it all worth your while in buying it and listening to it. If you like Stevie Ray Vaughan, then you will probably enjoy this insightful performance.

Like a live concert album, this CD retains conversation between the two star players, but at a much lower volume than the music and singing. This talk is interesting the first few times that you hear it, but the CD actually assigns most of this inbetween songs talk to their own track list numbers, so you can set your CD player to skip the talk, which I think makes the music flow more like a standard music album, not having to wait a minute or two between songs.

I am very happy with this Stevie Ray Vaughan CD rarity! If you collect Stevie Ray Vaughan CDs, then you can buy this one with confidence that the musical performances and audio quality are comparable to Stevie's major label CD releases! January 27, 2008

Excellent sound

Very pleased with this SACD, sound is awesome. I agree with all other highly rated reviews, it is more than words can describe. June 14, 2007

Albert King SRV

All one has to do is to listen to this and realize that we were lucky that this event happened. I hear something new every time I play it. Enjoy April 3, 2007

Blues that cut like a chainsaw

While Albert King never rose to the massive popularity of Stevie Ray Vaughan, as far as blues players go though, he was one of the more familiar to rock fans, thanks to his work being covered by Clapton and Hendrix ("Born Under A Bad Sign").
No modern guitarist was more influenced by King than Stevie Ray Vaughan, whose admiration and praise allowed him to share the stage in a Hamilton, Ontario TV studio right around the time of the release of Vaughan's "Texas Flood". This summit was long overdue, and is absolutely critical for Vaughan and King fans.
Mind you, there are many rehashes, repackagings and other posthumous releases of SRV, most of which are unforgivable, offering nothing new, only capitalizing on the myth and making a fortune off his memory.
"In Session", however, like "The Sky Is Crying", is one CD that does offer a fresh look at both masters.
King is still the star of this show, and his band provides the powerful backing music as the two titans trade off solo after solo, each careful to not overplay, but not hide behind their amps, either.
Vaughan sounds a lot like King, showing us the bedrock of his style. He was a little flashier, and could control feedback ala Hendrix, but when all is said and done, SRV was the best white blues player period. Brit players like Clapton and Page pale in comparison.
Prime cuts include "Pride And Joy" as handled by King's band, and it thumps and grinds mightily. "Overall Junction" is a King jam and indeed it does. Perhaps the best is "Matchbox Blues", with an absolutely wicked swing beat that allows both guitarists to soar, reaching blues nirvana over and over.
SRV fans will delight in this CD when he was probably at his greatest, and will come away King fans as well, after finding out who got this party started in the first place. December 16, 2006

Wish I Could Have Been There

Albert King and SRV appeared on the Canadian TV show 'In Session' and the result was incredible. The music itself is really good, with two great musicians playing the tunes they loved. But it's the dialogue between Albert and SRV that puts this over the top.

Albert's story about Stevie sitting in with him about 10 years earlier when he was just a skinny kid in Austin was amazing. And while SRV was coming into his own at the time of the session, he was still paying a lot of respect to Albert. There was this aspect of passing the baton from one generation of blues players to another about this session.

Finally if the combination of 'Who Is Stevie' and 'Pride & Joy' doesn't have you smilin' and hummin' along - then you just don't like the blues.

You can't go wrong with this CD. In addition to the good music the recording is also pretty realistic. I keep wondering what it would have been like to be in the studio when this session was recorded... May 27, 2006

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