
(Cleopatra) Pat Travers and Bob Dylan. It's a marriage made... if not in heaven, then at least in a place where dreams come true and the blues keep rolling. On March 20, 2004, early a tour that would keep them on the road across North America and Europe until July, the Pat Travers Band headed to Houston, Texas, to record what would become one of the most exhilarating live albums of his career, Snortin' Whiskley..
Accompanied by southern rock maestro Greg T. Walker (Lynyrd Skynyrd/Blackfoot) on bass and former AC/DC skin basher Simon Wright on drums, Travers would lead this ruthlessly stripped back trio deep into their roots.
The result, releasing on June 26, is a Texas-sized slab of electrified blues packed with epic versions of fan favorites "Boom Boom Out Go The Lights" and "Snortin' Whiskey"; barnstorming work-outs... including a colossal 13-minute version of "Born Under A Bad Sign"; and well-chosen covers - the Allman Brothers' "Statesboro Blues," Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return); and - released as a single today - Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited."
Not that their rendition of the title track from the bard's second album of 1965, has much in common with Dylan's original - as Travers warns at the outset of the song, "we're gonna kick your ass." And then this leanest, meanest line-up of them all slams into a Mach 2 firestorm, percussion and bass setting up an irresistible pace and rhythm, while Travers. Plays like a man possessed, his guitar spilling liquid fire over all around.
Hungry and raw, the energy never dips. If anything, it gets even more intense as the show rolls on, until that closing salvo of "Born Under A Bad Sign" and "Statesboro Blues" makes it clear that no-one on earth could have followed it, and that includes the band.
Cleopatra Records and Pat Travers go back a long way, with close to two dozen releases highlighting both his most recent recordings and a string of historic live albums dating back to 1980. Is Bluesed Out in Houston the best of them all? That's for you to decide.
Hear Pat Travers Rock Bob Dylan's 'Highway 61 Revisited'
Chris Poland's Nuclear Messiah Shares 'For Mad Men Only' Feat Joe Lynn Turner and Pat Travers
Hear Pat Travers' Statesboro Blues (Live In Baltimore 1982) Title Track
Jason Bonham Leads The Lineup For Whole Lotta Rock Camp Volume II
Cruise News: Dave Koz Will Sail to Latin America and the Dutch Caribbean in 2028
Sites and Sounds: Sister Hazel Return to the Crossroads Music Festival
Van Halen Reissuing Final Studio Album
Oasis: Don't Look Back In Anger Premieres At Venice International Film Festival
Duran Duran's 'Ordinary World' Reimagined By Vitamin String Quartet And Girl Named Tom
Kurt Baker Unearths Lost Madrid Recordings On New Single 'Wonder Woman'
Blue October Announce Storytelling On Vinyl And DVD
Arms & Armour Release 'Crusher' Video
Elvis Costello Shares Previously Unreleased 'I Turn Around' From 'My Aim Is True' Box Set
Hear The Fleshtones' 50th Anniversary Single 'Float Your Showboat'
Fight From Within Unleash 'The End of My Rope'
Liam And Noel Gallagher Arrive at Venice Lido For 'Oasis: Don't Look Back In Anger' Premiere
Watch Underoath Rock 'Breathing In A New Mentality' At Warped Tour
The All-American Rejects Deliver Expanded 'Move Along' Album