The result of a recording session in January '69 at Chess Records in Chicago, this was Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan, John McVie & Mick Fleetwood) with some of their Chicago blues mentors (which I won't bother listing as they're plainly laid out on the sleeve for all to see). It was released on the Blue Horizon label in December of the same year and failed to reach the UK charts. The US received this under the name of "Fleetwood Mac in Chicago" in a plain black sleeve with the title as a logo, and it was then reissued in 1970 as two separate volumes called "Blues Jam in Chicago, Vol. 1 & Vol. 2". In 2004 it was re-released in CD form with extra tracks, but at 22 tracks here I feel I have enough to be getting on with.
Volume one, side one, kicks off with a Peter Green composition called Watch out, which wouldn't have sounded out of place on the first album. It's definitely a predominately blues album, although there is some fantastic guitar playing on this track. Ooh baby isn't listed on every version of the album that I've seen on the net but I'm assuming it was on the original, anyhow it's a Howlin' Wolf number sung by Peter Green and instantly infectious. Walter Horton plays harmonica on some of these tracks, including his own composition, South Indiana, which is included here in two separate takes, one after the other. The second take begins with about a minute's worth of talking and debating, but both are equally funky and memorable.
Peter Green picks up the vocals again on a Little Walter Jacobs hit from 1954 called Last night. It's another one about a lover who has run off and left him, though not as sombre as some of the others from other albums with the same theme. Still a great song though and definitely my favourite from volume one, and possibly the whole album. I'm not sure if they did this as a tribute to Walter, who died the previous year, or not.
Another instrumental follows, and Peter Green really lets go on his Red hot jam, although at six minutes is slightly on the long side. Then follows that familiar guitar riff from Mr. Wonderful on Elmore James' song I'm worried, which he wrote in 1960. Jeremy Spencer gives a great vocal on this and it's pretty catchy. Another three Elmore tracks follow, each sung by Jeremy, and starting with I held my baby last night which is a better version of the song that is included on the remastered CD version of Mr. Wonderful. Jeremy gives strong vocals throughout here, not least on Madison blues which is a fun piece, and then I can't hold out which uses that old riff once more.
I need your love is a Walter Horton track which he himself sings vocals on here, after a couple of false starts and much debating. With Green and Kirwan on guitars, this is a funky piece of blues which is a welcome change after so many Elmore James numbers. Walter again sings on the final track from volume one, I got the blues, which he also wrote. To begin with it sounds flat and horrible, but luckily he is quickly halted and the vocals sound far more soulful on the actual track.
That's volume one over and I have to say that it was too much to listen to volume two in the same sitting, so for the next part of the review I listened with a fesh ear.
The world's a tangle is a strong start to volume two. Written by blues singer Jimmy Rogers, it is sung here by Danny Kirwan and it is just a great, understated ballad. Danny's own composition, Talk with you, follows and is another strong track. Like it this way isn't so instant but it's Danny again and the guitars are more noticeable here, I'm really feeling this volume so far.
After that it starts to go a bit downhill. American blues musician Otis Spann, who sadly died the following year from liver cancer aged just 40, sings vocals on two consecutive tracks, Someday soon baby and Hungry country girl, both of which move along at a slow pace and don't really go anywhere. At 7:37 and 5:46 minutes long too they are more than a bit long.
Then John Thomas Brown sings vocals on his Black Jack blues, about a man who loses all his money on Black Jack and is afraid of going home to his wife. John actually died before the album was released, aged 51. It's an OK track but I'm waiting for the Mac to get back on vocals now. Jeremy Spencer returns to the front next on a Memphis Slim track from 1947 called Everyday I have the blues, it's a welcome relief as is the following Spencer penned instrumental, Rockin' boogie, which is quite funky and the title is apt.
Peter Green returns to the vocal forefront on the final two tracks, the first of which, Howlin' Wolf's Sugar Mama is a blues standard dating back to 1934. It takes a couple of minutes to get properly started but it's not bad. The final track, Homework, saves the day on this lacklustre second volume though. Written by Al Perkins, Dave Clark and Otis Rush, Green makes it his own and is instantly memorable.
So the second volume didn't quite live up to the first, but there are two or three stand out tracks there, and over the whole course of both volumes I would say that there are six to ten tracks that I would immediately listen to again. I would definitely recommend buying this in some form, but don't try and do the whole thing in one sitting unless you're a blues fanatic.
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