"This is the best live blues album -- and one of the best blues albums -- you will ever hear. (Note its recording history in the book "Deep Blues.") Raw, uninhibited, a glimpse of Son Seals as he sounds in a crowded club. Seals picks up where Muddy left off in Chicago, without any of the post-modern bull. Back in the day I had friends who ran a record shop. Each time they put this one on the turntable they would sell out the stock."
Absolutely ESSENTIAL live blues
CD Junkie | 11/22/1998
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Can you say INTENSE? Probably the most accurate title for a recording ever. It captures Son at the peak of his power. The guitar bites and claws, the vocals, gruff and in your face, are sung with a conviction rarely, if ever, matched in the blues genre. The rest of the band is tight and in the groove.The emotion jumps at you from the speakers. A huge plus is this recording is made the way a live blues record should be made. The mix isn't perfect, the mistakes and feedback are left in, the crowd noise is left in. It IS however, the closest thing to being in a smoky, crowded blues club that you will find on CD. A must buy!!!"
One of the all time great live blues albums
Fred Rudofsky | upstate NY United States | 04/26/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Son Seals is really one of the titans of the current blues scene who should be spoken of in the same conversation as BB King, Buddy Guy, and Ronnie Earl. Of the many albums I have, this is one of the best, Son with his own band burning it up in a club full of real blues lovers. Although the set here features several covers (Son is one of the great composers, as you'll learn on subsequent albums), they are delivered in quite personal, intense renditions (esp. Litle Walter's "Last Night") that show that Son picked up the best from watching the legends who used to play his father's Arkansas club in the 1950's. This is one of the gems on the Alligator label, so by all means buy it along with the others he has in the catalog. His vocals have grit, and his guitar is like a nasty fusion of BB, Albert (King), and Hubert Sumlin. And see Son when he plays near you."
Enjoyable first live album from Son Seals
Docendo Discimus | Vita scholae | 03/07/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Son Seals' first live album, "Live and Burning" came out in 1978, and it features Frank "Son" Seals and his band playing live at the Wise Fools Pub in Chicago.
It was his third LP, and while casual fans may lament the fact that there are almost no songs here from either of Son's first two albums, what is here is very good in its own right. Sure, it would have been great to hear him do "Four Full Seasons of Love" or "Mother-in-Law-Blues", but think of it this way: Here you get not only a sizzling live album, but a full eight new songs, or at least songs which don't appear on Seals' studio albums.
Son Seals himself is in excellent form on "Live and Burning", and saxist A.C. Reed provides soul and some fine counterpoints to Seals' stinging lead guitar, especially on songs like "Blue Shadows Falling" and Reed's own "She's Fine".
Overall, these nine selections lack that little bit of extra brilliance which would have made this a five-star album, and "Live and Burning" certainly isn't the greatest live blues record ever. But it is a really, really good one nonetheless. Son Seals is equally convincing on slow blues as he is on rollicking R&B numbers; he breathes new life into the old Detroit Junior single "Call My Job", a muscular, swaggering rendition which'll automatically starts your head bobbing if you're not careful.
The wonderful "Spontaneous Combustion" is Seals' best live album, but this one is not far behind at all. If you're new to Son Seals, start by picking up either Alligator's "Deluxe Edition", or the magnificent "Midnight Son", but don't forget to scoop this one up along the way."