Imagine two of the greatest blues guitar players in history in a room together jamming each others tracks and old blues classics. Put Albert King, one of the most influential blues guitarist/vocalists of all time and Stevie Ray Vaughan, probably THE most influential and talented blues guitarists/vocalists of all time together with a band and press record, surely you can’t fail to capture something magical. Well they did, and it is.
This album was recorded live for television on December 6, 1983, at CHCH-TV studios in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and origin ally released as an album in August 17, 1999. This album is notable as this is the only known recording of Stevie Ray Vaughan and his idol Albert King together. Initially King wasn’t going to do the show as he didn’t know who Stevie Ray Vaughan was. He didn’t realize that Stevie Ray Vaughan was actually ‘little Stevie’, the ‘skinny kid’ that he let sit in when King played in Texas.
The album opens with the classic track “Call It Stormy Monday” with Albert King’s singing solo lines, just on the edge of breakup and in this case coloured with a bit of Phaser, and unmistakeable smokey vocals. Stevie Ray seems to shy away from playing at first but begins to play some tasteful quiet licks after Albert says to him “I can’t hear you”. He certainly seems to enjoy hearing Stevie Ray play, and starts to chuckle when his guitar finally starts to cut through the band. The great thing about this album is that everything is captured so any talking, shouting, laughing between Albert and Stevie Ray comes through on the mic, you can almost smell the cigarette smoke as you are transported to an intimate blues club. You can hear a lot of Albert’s influence in Stevie’s playing but it has this extra level of energy and feel that only Stevie Ray had.
The second track is called “Old Times” and is just Albert and Stevie Ray reminiscing about when they first met, there aren’t many recordings of Stevie Ray talking so it is really nice to have these conversations on record.
“…most guitar players, they just play fast and don’t concentrate on no soul, but you got ‘em both.” – Albert to Stevie Ray.
The following track is the Stevie Ray Vaughan classic “Pride and Joy” and I never tire of hearing this song especially when you have Albert King playing fills throughout. Albert’s tone is great he sounds like he is really cranking his amp and the humbuckers are pushing the tubes into overdrive.
“Ask Me No Questions” is apparently an old tune by BB King, I know that because Albert introduces it on the record as he is asking Stevie Ray if he heard it, he says he recorded it in San Francisco ’83. Stevie just jams along as if he had written it. Is that a bit of delay on Stevie Ray’s solo? You don’t hear that very often, it is pretty subtle but gives the sound a great depth. Great interplay between the two blues legends at the end of this track and they end laughing and shouting.
“Pep Talk” this is Albert giving Stevie Ray some advice on life and his career, “…you’re already pretty good… but er, you’re gonna be better and I’m gonna be watching ya.”
“Blues At Sunrise” was a track Albert recorded with Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, if ever there was anyone who could sit in for the late great Jimi it would be the late great Stevie Ray Vaughan. In my opinion he is the only person to come close to Jimi and after Albert reminds him he has to play Jimi’s parts he launches into some signature Hendrix riff’s coloured with a little SRV magic which has Albert laughing in awe. Albert also tells a story about Jimi and Janis during the middle of the song like he is explaining to Stevie how this song came about before asking Stevie to play. This song is the longest on the album at 15 minutes and has a similar vibe to Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile, amazing. Albert even breaks a string during the recording and this leads into the next track “Turn It Over” where Albert talks to Stevie Ray about how he hasn’t been maintaining his strings because after 28 years he wants to slow down and hand over to Stevie. There are some great candid moments of conversation on this CD.
“Overall Junction” is a blues shuffle that is a classic stomping blues jam, no vocals just Albert & Stevie Ray trading licks and it is 8 minutes of classic blues playing mistakes, feedback and all!
“Who is Stevie?” this is another conversation between Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughan, “I like this being here with you… we used to call you little Stevie.” Albert chuckles before launching into the final track “Don’t Lie To Me” once again with Stevie trading licks with Albert over a fast 12 bar blues and pounding Hammond Organ. Much as I like Stevie Ray Vaughan’s vocals Albert King’s was to blues singing what Stevie was to guitar playing, he just had that extra bit of magic in his vocal chords.
On June 30, 2009, the legendary Stax Records label will reissue the digitally remastered version of In Session '“ the Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughan 1983 live album that reached #1 on Billboard's blues album chart, selling more than 300,000 units. The reissue includes three sets of liner notes by Fantasy and Stax Records' Bill Belmont, and journalists Lee Hildebrand and Dan Forte.
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