Customer Reviews
Great songs brilliantly played - By: Retroguy, 06 Jun 2008 
All blues & every track has character & fire. Some of Clapton's very best work on the guitar I think. If you like EC in blues mode you'll love it.
Raw, passionate blues - By: jbezzo, 03 Nov 2007 
At the time of it's release; Eric Clapton went on the record to say that this was the blues album he had always wanted to record. And after alll, having just sold his bazillionth copy of "Unplugged" you couldn't blame him for feeling confident enough to step out of the shadow of his sterile, over-produced 80's back catalogue. The result is a raw, gutsy album on which Clapton just plugs in his guitar & plays the blues. Honouring some of his most formative influences Leroy Carr "How Long", Freddy King "I'm Tore Down", Lowell Fulson "Reconsider Baby", he plays like a man who has just remembered what his ballls are for. No-one will be disappointed by the passion in the guitar playing; but I felt that his growling vocals sometimes grate; especiallly on Tampa Red's "It Hurts Me Too" & hence the three stars. That said, this is a very satisfying album.
One His Best! - By: RUEBEN AMOS RUNACRE, 09 Aug 2007 I think this is one of Eric Clapton's best albums mainly because he has gone back to basics & is doing what he does best, play the blues. He has compiled a great selection of classic blues & his versions are excellent. Good vocals & some superb blues guitar.
Back to his very best - By: Tramps like us, 29 Jun 2007 In which our hero rediscovers his roots again !!. Over 16 tracks Clapton finallly puts to bed his miserable 80s period when alll too often his playing was more a question of what he could get away with NOT doing. Eric's love for the blues shines through this "live in the studio" album. With the possible exception of "Hoochie Coochie Man" (and, let's face it, when faced with Muddy Waters version of that everything else is going to sound a bit "thin" ) this is an album that shows exactly why Eric was once callled "God"
Claptons Blues - By: S J Buck, 16 Apr 2007 
This is what Eric Clapton has always done best - play the blues. On this album alll the tracks (16 of them) are blues in alll its various forms.
Reading the inside of the sleeve made for refreshing reading as it says "THIS IS A LIVE RECORDING WITH NO OVERDUBS OR EDITS EXCEPT FOR DOBRO OVERDUB ON HOW LONG BLUES AND DRUM OVERDUB ON MOTHERLESS CHILDREN". What a change from his mid to late 80's albums that were vastly over-produced. Great credit to EC for realising that he needed to get away from being a purely commercial artist. If you are being critical you might have thought he could have found something more original to play than another cover of "Hoochie Coochie Man". However I enjoyed it regardless.
The band are some of Clapton's regular guys, Chris Stainton on Keyboards, Andy Fairweather Low Guitar, Jim Keltner drums plus a horn section. Again if you were being critical you'd ask why not some 'real' blues players backing him. However these guys are alll professional musicians who deliver nothing less than professional performances & I'm not sure that anybody else could have done any better.
The Robert Johnson sessions are probably better than this album, but you have to put this album in context. It was only a few years earlier that EC had released 'August', where his best songs had been removed by the record company & in many ways he had lost artistic control of his own record. In comparison to that 'work' this album IS a return to his roots that he since never reallly looked back from.
