LITTLE
MILTON
"HIS LAST
CONCERT"
LIVE AT THE NORTH ATLANTIC
BLUES FESTIVAL
PRODUCED AND EDITED BY PAUL E.
BENJAMIN & RICHARD PELLETIER
RECORDED BY JUKE JOINT
VIDEO
REVIEW BY PETER 'BLEWZZMAN"
LAURO
Being asked to
offer my opinion on this project is an absolute honor. Having been a life
long fan of the late, great MILTON CAMPBELL, it is with great pleasure and lots
of respect that I write the following words.
It absolutely shocks
me that I'm actually looking at what turned out to be LITTLE MILTONS
last live concert. Watching this 70 minute performance, in a
torrential downpour, MILTON looked and sounded as good as I ever remember him
looking and sounding. These eyes and ears would have thought he'd be
touring at least another ten more years.
Looking quite
handsome in his green suit and sporting enough gold and diamonds to create his
own sunshine on this quite dreary day in Maine, MILTON pleased a very loyal
and very drenched crowd, in conditions that were not quite so
pleasing.
The DVD starts off
with an intro which are actually very well edited frames of MILTON'S
final song of the set - "THE BLUES IS ALRIGHT". The camera
also captures the huge and very wet crowd that apparently are oblivious to
weather. Once live action starts LITTLE MILTON walks out and immediately
gets the audience to join him in clapping their hands as he, and his
audience, goes into a hip shaking version of "STILL SOME MEAT LEFT ON
THE BONE". Rain? What rain?
After
offering a very sincere and heartfelt thanks to the crowd, for
enduring the elements on his behalf, MILTON went into a very slow and soulful 10
minute version of "JUST ONE MOMENT". DERWIN JOHNSON does an
excellent job on the background organ as MILTON "story tells" the first
part of the song.
The pace gets picked
up again as MILTON gets back up on his feet for a hot version of "I
DON'T BELIEVE IN GHOSTS". PAUL GOMEZ provides the guitar work on this
one.
A LITTLE MILTON
concert wouldn't be complete without a medley, so here it goes. MILTON
performs several minutes of great guitar magic as he opens this 20 minute
version of "CATCH YOU ON YOUR WAY DOWN", "ANNIE MAE'S CAFE", "WALKING THE BACK
STREETS CRYING" and "A POSSUM IN MY TREE". As the medley
ended, it appeared that MILTON had as much fun playing as the crowd
had listening. This was classic LITTLE MILTON.
The band,
with some nice rhythm from PETE MCDONALD on drums and RENA BEAVERS on
bass, locks into a smooth ten minute groove on "I WOULDN'T TAKE NOTHING FOR
YOUR LOVE". This one had the crowd dancing regardless of their feet
being in ankle deep mud.
Some of the more
serious down home blues was heard and felt on "MY DOG AND ME".
MILT'S got a bad dose of the blues as he discovers not only his woman, but his
dog left him as well.
It's now finale time
for MILTON, and as it sadly turned out, this was his final finale. I'm
sure MILTON would have it no other way than for it to be with him leading a
raucous audience as they loudly and proudly testify that "THE
BLUES IS ALRIGHT".
If you are -
and I use the present tense versus the past tense because
the music of LITTLE MILTON will never die - a fan of MILTON CAMPBELL,
and not many weren't, then you should go to the website of North Atlantic
Blues Records - https://pour.midcoast.com/~bluesman/nabrecords.html and grab a copy of this DVD. The editing is
superb, the camera work is excellent with lots of great close ups and
the audio is quite good.