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Blue Dogs and Friends – Live at the Florence Little Theater
Limeygit
I don’t have a lot of time for South Carolina as a rule, but I would have happily risked the ire of some SC State Troopers to have been at this gig, recorded in Florence SC back in May 1998. The result is excellently captured on a 17 track album that weighs in at just under 75 minutes.
The album grows from an acoustic beginning, adding instruments and guests along the way as they transform into an all out rock band. It is kind of like watching a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis and fly around. Terrible analogy I know, but it somehow fits.
 The 17 tracks on display showcase their undoubted songwriting talent, but also their fine choice in covers. I am not going to tell you what, just that everyone of them is a deliciously little event in the dark art of covering. If you really want to, you can slip over to their site and give the track listing a look. It is better though to do what I did, and just throw the CD in and find some old friends amongst some soon to be very familiar originals.
The whole though is even better than the parts.
Blue Dogs have shared the stage with Hootie and the Blowfish, Edwin McCain, and many other bands, and I doubt they were ever overshadowed. ‘Live at the Florence Little Theater’ shows a band at absolute one with each other and the audience. This couldn’t sound more note-perfect if it was the results of months in the studio. The production is crisp and doesn’t tread on any toes. Vocals and instruments move in and out of the limelight with the perfection of synchronized swimmers.
Musically they are a little bit rock, a little bit blues, a touch of folk, and a smattering of country. The whole is a masterclass in the ‘simple is better’ school of concert playing. Quite why, with the Hootie connection to help, they never got to the attention of the mainstream is beyond me. They are better than their old stagemates, they write roots pop that would easily fit onto the top 40 format, and they obviously love to tour. Oh well all the more for me. Highly recommended.
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