VA - Exile On Blues Street (2003)

This disc is an integral part of a series Telarc is doing -- taking albums that were big sellers by prominent artists and having an innovative group of solid blues players do their interpretations of a variety of the songs from the original album. They have done this with the Beatles' White Album (calling it The Blues White Album) and Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde with good success, which will probably continue with this new interpretation of the Stones' 1972 vintage album. Telarc put together a dynamite "house" band, including Brian Stoltz (ex-Neville Brothers) on guitar and former Double Trouble rhythm section members Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton, and then pulled in many more celebrated artists to handle the leads. the Stones, who started out as a blues and R&B band, always maintained those roots; thus, many of the songs keep their original shape. This is a solid retooling of this classic Stones LP. Telarc has taken the original double disc and picked the songs the artists felt remained truest to their respective traditions and packaged it as a ten-song disc, complete with a cover notes that make it look the same. You probably won't be surprised by the tunes; however, there are some great takes here that will make the listener want to investigate some of the artists they used. Give a listen to Lucky Peterson's version of "Ventilator Blues," or maybe Jeff Lang's rendition of "Sweet Virginia." The contribution of the backing band is solid all the way through. A strong addition to this potentially wonderful series.