Hear Pat Travers 'Snortin' Whiskey' In Houston

(Cleopatra) On March 20, 2004, early into a marathon outing 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.

Fronting a dynamite trio completed by southern rock maestro Greg T. Walker (Lynyrd Skynyrd/Blackfoot - bass) and Simon Wright (AC/DC - drums), Travers was delving deep into his musical roots on this tour, and nightly delivering a Texas-sized slab of electrified blues.

The set was flawless, ranging from epic versions of fan favorites "Boom Boom Out Go The Lights" and "Life in London"; some truly barnstorming work-outs... a colossal 13-minute version of Albert King's 1967 stomper "Born Under A Bad Sign" among them... and some exquisitely well-chosen covers - the Allman Brothers' "Statesboro Blues," Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return); and -Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited,"

Today, however, sees one of Travers' own compositions (co-written with then-bandmate Pat Thrall) hit the spotlight, as a short, but so sharp "Snorting' Whiskey" peels out as his latest single.

A firm crowd-pleaser since it appeared on the classic Crash And Burn album in 1980, "Snortin' Whiskey" is both the guitarist's tour de force and the rhythm section at its tightest, both wildly flamboyant and thrillingly concise. Travers's mid-song solo is scarcely ten seconds long, but it wipes the floor with many more extravagant showcases.

Of course, there are longer (and equally thrilling) solos elsewhere across this breathtaking album, Travers and co playing like men possessed, determined that the energy should never flag. In fact, if anything, things grow even more intense as the show progresses, until that closing salvo of "Born Under A Bad Sign" and "Statesboro Blues" hits such peak blues-blasting temperatures that the show literally had to end there. No band on earth could have followed that.

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