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Dave Specter – Live In Chicago
Delmark 794


Blues guitarist Dave Specter is never prone to grandstanding. He communicates an inherent sense of style and form, subtlety and swing, keeping his magnetic needle always fixed on a steady, unalterable course. Recorded live at Buddy Guy’s Legends and Rosa’s Blues Lounge, Live In Chicago features special guests Jimmy Johnson, Tad Robinson and Sharon Lewis. The CD contains four instrumentals and two songs by each of the guest vocalists, while the DVD has three vocals by each. DVD also contains Specter commentary special feature. Boss Funk, What Love Did To Me, What’s Your Angle, Feel So Bad, Out On The Road, In Too Deep, Angel and more…

Dave Specter
Live In Chicago
Delmark DE 794
with Jimmy Johnson, Tad Robinson, Sharon Lewis

If you were to ask Chicago-based blues guitarist Dave Specter why his albums are so diverse, he will reply: "I can't play shuffles and slow blues all night." In the 17 years that Specter has been a Delmark recording artist, we've witnessed him go from one trick bag to another: he's recorded blues instrumentals with a Freddie King feel and jazz instrumentals that extend the tradition of Kenny Burrell. He's flirted with soul and funk, and if he has to go back to shuffles and slow blues, he can do that as well, with mighty conviction and originality. Booklet with complete notes by James Porter enclosed.

1. Boss Funk/Riverside Ride 7:32
2. What Love Did To Me 6:08
3. How I Got To Memphis 5:18
4. What's Your Angle 5:32
5. Texas Top 6:18
6. Out On The Road 8:18
7. Feel So Bad 6:45
8. Hollywood Park Shuffle 5:18
9. Is What It Is 6:27
10. In Too Deep 4:59
11. Angel 7:06

Dave Specter, guitar
Brother John Kattke, keyboards
Harlan Terson, bass
Marty Binder, drums
Tad Robinson, vocals, harmonica (2,3, 4)
Jimmy Johnson, vocals, guitar (6,7)
Sharon Lewis, vocals (10, 11)

Tad Robinson appears courtesy Severn Records

Recorded live on August 20 and 21, 2007

Also available on DVD (Delmark DVD 1794)



1. Boss Funk/Riverside Ride 7:32
(Dave Specter, SpecTone Music, BMI)
2. What Love Did To Me 6:08
(Tad Robinson, 90th Street Publ., ASCAP)
3. How I Got To Memphis 5:18
(Tom T. Hall, Unichappell Music Inc., BMI)
4. What's Your Angle 5:32
(Tad Robinson, 90th Street Publ., ASCAP)
5. Texas Top 6:18 (Dave Specter, SpecTone Music, BMI)
6. Out On The Road 8:18
(Jimmy Rogers, Arc Music Corp., BMI)
7. Feel So Bad 6:45 (Chuck Willis, Berkshire Music Inc./Chuck Willis Music Co./Elvis Presley Music, BMI)
8. Hollywood Park Shuffle 5:18
(Dave Specter, SpecTone Music, BMI)
9. Is What It Is 6:27
(Specter/Frankel, SpecTone Music, BMI)
10. In Too Deep 4:59 (Sharon Lewis)
11. Angel 7:06 (Sharon Lewis)

If you were to ask Chicago-based guitarist Dave Specter why his albums are so diverse, he will reply simply: "I can't play shuffles and slow blues all night." In the 17 years that Specter has been a Delmark recording artist, we've witnessed him go from one trick bag to another: he's recorded blues instrumentals with a Freddie King feel, and jazz instrumentals that extend the tradition of Kenny Burrell. He has collaborated with guitarists Steve Freund, Floyd McDaniel and Ronnie Earl, subtly chorded behind noted blues vocalizers like Lenny Lynn, Tad Robinson, Jesse Fortune, Lynwood Slim and Barkin' Bill Smith. He's flirted with soul and funk, and if he has to go back to shuffles and slow blues, he can do that as well, with mighty conviction and originality.

This new album finds him once again at work in front of a live audience. Rather than jet to the other side of the world (as he did on 1994's Live In Europe), he recorded this one right here at home in Chicago at two noted blues clubs, Rosa's Lounge and Buddy Guy's Legends. Rosa's is small and intimate; Buddy Guy's is significantly larger. Yet Specter & Co. put out the same commitment level for both venues.

Live In Chicago finds Specter tilting towards soul and bluesified funk, two genres he's nodded to in passing on earlier records (he covered the Meters' "Look-Ka-Py-Py" on Speculatin', Delmark 744 and Otis Clay's "I Die a Little Each Day" on Live in Europe, Delmark 677). Rather than go for a full-on funk effect a la the Dap-Kings or other contemporary bands, Specter laces his backbeats with a blues inflection, like Junior Wells or Albert Collins.

"We've been friends for many years," Specter says of Sharon Lewis, who got her start at Chicago's famed juke joint, Lee's Unleaded Blues. "We've done shows sporadically including a two-week tour of Europe in spring '07. I think Sharon is one of the best female blues singers on the scene." There's also a few jolting vocal turns and stinging guitar from Jimmy Johnson. "I met Jimmy probably in '84," Specter now reflects. "I was looking to break into the scene and I asked him for some guitar lessons. He introduced me to Steve Freund who took me under his wing. (Johnson) was playing a lot of keyboards back in the mid-80s, and hired me to play guitar. He's one of the truly original voices in the blues." And bringing the tale full circle, Johnson makes his first appearance on a Specter album.
Two musicians Specter worked with on his last album, Is What It Is (Delmark 779) reappear on this album: drummer Marty Binder (who also played with Junior Wells and Albert Collins) as well as bassist Harlan Terson, a veteran of Otis Rush and Lonnie Brooks' bands. Joining the fray is keyboardist Brother John Kattke (formerly with Otis Rush and Buddy Guy), whose own band can be seen in Chicago regularly, hosting the jam sessions at Buddy Guy's Legends on alternate Mondays.

While this album has the vibe you'd expect from a live record, the energy isn't sloppy or self-indulgent. With many blues bands, an instrumental is like a throwaway meant to mark time while the vocalist takes a gin break. Specter doesn't sing, but his instrumentals feel like genuine and thoughtful songs, not just random filler. On the lyrical side, Robinson has always been a solid storyteller and a gripping singer; two of his best tales are on this album, "What Love Did To Me" and "What's Your Angle?". Lewis weighs in with some viewpoints of her own on her two originals "In Too Deep" and "Angel".
In Specter's universe, T-Bone Walker is one of the most underrated jazz cats ever lived while Jimmy McGriff may as well be a blues prophet. You can hear more of this blues-jazz continuum (with a touch of old-style funk) on Live in Chicago. It's not a case of "you had to be there," it's more like "you wish you were."

James Porter
February 2008

James Porter is a Chicago-based music writer who has glorified scratchy blues 45's, greasy cheeseburgers, lost rockabilly classics, defunct TV shows and other ephemera for Time Out Chicago, Blues Revue, Roctober, the Chicago Reader and other magazines.

Album Production and Supervision: Robert G. Koester, Steve Wagner and Dave Specter
Recorded by Steve Wagner and Eric Butkus
Mixed at Riverside Studio by Steve Wagner, Eric Butkus, Dave Specter and Dave Katzman
Photos by Harvey Tillis and Jennifer "Lady Blues" Wheeler
Design: Dave Forte, ForDzign
Special thanks to Buddy Guy, Brian Fadden, Harvey McCarter, Dave Katzman, the staff at Legends, Mama Rosa, Tony Mangiullo and the staff at Rosa’s Blues Lounge.

Dave Specter plays Epiphone guitars
Dave Specter & Harlan Terson play GHS strings.

Visit Dave Specter on the web at www.davespecter.org or
www.myspace.com/davespecter


Other Delmark albums of interest:
Dave Specter, Speculatin’ (744)
Left Turn On Blue (693) with Jack McDuff, Lynwood Slim
Live In Europe (677) with Tad Robinson
Blueplicity (664) Tad Robinson
Dave Specter & Steve Freund, Is What It Is (779)
Dave Specter & Barkin’ Bill, Bluebird Blues (652) with Ronnie Earl
Dave Specter & Lenny Lynn, Blues Spoken Here (721) with Eric Alexander
Steve Freund, "C" For Chicago (734) with Boz Scaggs, Kim Wilson, Dave Specter
I'll Be Your Mule (752) with Dave Specter
Jesse Fortune, Fortune Tellin' Man (658) with Dave Specter
Floyd McDaniel, West Side Baby (706) live in Europe with Dave Specter
Jimmy Johnson, Johnson's Whacks (744)
North/South (647)
Pepper's Hangout (745)