The definitive introduction to Peter Green-era FM

4-1/2 stars. I picked up this gem at a record store in the Import section, although for an import it seems to be pretty commonly distributed. These cuts are from the same sets as the "Live at the Boston Tea Party" series, with the same excellent remastering as those discs. This collection is more concise, but you should note that the "Encore Jam" with Joe Walsh and members of the James Gang has an additional 6 minutes over the jam issued with the "Boston Tea Party" discs. That fact alone should get you interested, but what I like about this disc is that you get an excellent spread of the true gems from those concerts : The absolutely riveting "Jumping At Shadows", a headbanging version of "Oh Well", the jazzy, nimble "Only You", and a 28-minute workout of "Rattlesnake Shake" from the second night that is absolutely astounding and must be heard to be believed. Oh yeah, and "The Green Manalishi" with Peter Green soloing on a 6-string bass (he started out as a bassist, dontcha know) ! The liner notes are decent and informative, although they dubiously claim that a "low-key Eric Clapton" was involved in the "Encore Jam" on disc 2.

The only problem with this set is that they could have given us more! I would have liked either the inclusion of "Coming Your Way" from disc 3 of the original BTP 3-disc set, or the compression of some of the shorter tracks on disc 2 to get "Rattlesnake Shake" from Disc 1 of the BTP. Still, close to two full hours of the Mac at the heights of their powers, coupled with the reasonable price tag, makes this essential for blues fans and oldschool mac fans, and for people like me, who are going retro to discover the greatness of the band's earlier days. For the fanatics though, you might want to skip this and look for "The Boston Box" which has a more complete selection of all three nights.