





 

Order this album today
|

Collins,
Copeland, Cray
Showdown!
Alligator Records
Albert Collins and Johnny Copeland were longtime associates, going back to
the days when Collins took a teenaged Copeland under his wing and taught
him a few licks on his guitar. Many years later, a young teenager in
Tacoma, Robert Cray, was blown away by the musical act at his high school
graduation dance, who was none other than Albert Collins. As he had done
with Copeland years before, Collins took young Cray under his wing and
taught him some nasty Texas Blues guitar.
By the mid '80s, Collins was one
of the most visible bluesmen this side of B. B. King, having recorded five
scorching albums for Alligator (including THE Albert Collins album, Ice Pickin’) and appeared at Live Aid. At the same time, Copeland had recorded
four powerful albums for Rounder, including the essentials Copeland
Special and Texas Twister (which featured Stevie Ray Vaughan on a couple
of tracks).
During this time, Alligator Records, Collins’ label, decided
to team up Collins and Copeland, along with Gatemouth Brown on an album.
When Brown was unable to join them due to scheduling conflicts, Cray was
brought in. During this same time, Robert Cray had nearly equaled both
Collins’ and Copeland’s fame, coming off two impressive releases on the
Hightone label, Bad Influence and False Accusations.
The final product of
the union was Showdown! To put it simply, this is as perfect a blues album
as there is. The vocals and guitar solos are split evenly, with Collins
appearing on all nine tracks, sharing four with Copeland, three with Cray,
and appearing with both on the opening track, a splendid cover of “T-Bone
Shuffle” and the closer, Ray Charles’ “Blackjack,” which features some
outstanding solo fretwork by all three.
On his four tracks, Copeland
displays all-out intensity on guitar and with his feral vocals. He never
sounded better on tracks like “Lion’s Den,” “Bring Your Fine Self Home,”
and the Hop Wilson tribute, “Black Cat Bone.”
Cray’s contributions are a
bit more restrained, including a nifty cover of Muddy Waters’ “She’s Into
Something,” but his fervent vocal on “The Dream” is chill bump-inducing.
As for Collins, for the most part he serves as the master of ceremonies,
allowing the other two to have their moments. But when it’s his turn to
take the guitar spotlight, he shows why he was known as The Master of the
Telecaster, infusing each song with the icy tone that made his sound so
instantly recognizable (witness the outstanding Collins/Copeland
instrumental “Albert’s Alley”). While his vocals are not as strong as
Copeland’s or Cray’s, they are a nice fit with the songs he does.
The band
supporting these three are a veritable Who’s Who in Chicago Blues, with
Allen Batts on organ, Johnny B. Gayden on bass, and the great Casey Jones
on drums.
Collins would later move to the Virgin/Pointblank label and
record several other fine albums, but none as great as this one, before
dying in November of 1993 after a battle with lung cancer. Copeland
recorded several albums for Verve and survived a heart transplant, before
dying in 1997 from complications from additional heart surgery. Cray is
largely credited for helping to trigger the resurgence of interest in the
blues. He’s recorded numerous albums of his Stax/Hi Records soul variation
of the blues, with varying success, including 1986’s Strong Persuader,
which is considered by many to be his masterpiece.
If you’ve read this
far, you probably already own Showdown! If you don’t own it yet, your
blues collection is incomplete.
--- Graham Clarke
|