The Best Of The Blues[2 CD]

Like the guitarist in Spinal Tap, Gary Moore has an amp that goes up to 11, and at times during the two and half hours of The Best of the Blues, you wonder if it's stuck there. Luckily, episodes of thunder and lightning are interspersed with performances like "Still Got the Blues," "Need Your Love So Bad," and "Midnight Blues" on the first disc of this two-CD set, or "Cold, Cold Feeling" on the second--calmer passages, where the storm clouds yield to shafts of silver light. Disc 1 is a selection from four early-'90s albums, featuring guest spots by Albert King, B.B. King, and Albert Collins, plus a concert recording of "Parisienne Walkways." Disc 2 has the same guests (on different songs) and a half-dozen of the same titles, but this is all unissued concert material. Live performance only stimulates Moore's tendency to skip the foreplay, producing music that is urgent, active, and seething with testosterone. Great stuff for a night in with the boys. --Tony Russell