Lettin' Go

1	Bad Blood 4:47
2	Let It Go 4:21
3	Give the Devil His Due 5:24
4	Doc's Blues 3:36
5	Hair on a Frog 4:04
6	Jelly, Jelly 7:07
7	Osceola Rcok 4:23
8	Dear Son 6:58
9	I Got Some of My Money 4:33
10	Rockin' and a Rollin' Tonight 3:03
11	Bad Luck Child 5:06
12	Blues Holy Ghost 5:52
13	Love Had a Breakdown 5:23
14	Funky Bitch 5:58

Barnes & Noble

Though he is one of Chicago's most vibrant contemporary blues guitarists, Son Seals hasn't had a new CD in half a decade, partly because of his battle with diabetes which has cost him one of his legs. But now he's back and burnin' on his first CD for the Telarc label, LETTIN' GO. And what a team has assembled to welcome him back into the recording world: Al Kooper is on Hammond B-3, Jimmy Vivino (from "Late Night with Conan O'Brien") produced the set and contributes tunes and guitar work, while Phish's Trey Anastasio plays guitar on an updated version of Seals' "Funky Bitch." Seals also gets support from crime writer Andrew Vachss, who cowrote two tunes, "Bad Blood" and "Doc's Blues." These disparate forces at times tend to defuse the fire in Seals' playing: On "Hair on the Dog" the guitarist seems to be trying too hard to stay in the game, and Seals doesn't quite make the lyrics to "Doc's Blues" his own. But the great opener "Bad Blood" was custom-made for Seals' brand of the blues, and his own "Osceola Rock," a tribute to his musical upbringing in his dad's Arkansas club, lets Seals put his tongue in cheek and take "Jail House Rock" to the chitlin circuit. Vivino's acoustic guitar gives "Dear Son" the perfect gentle pathos for Seals' electric guitar to scream and cry through. The countrified "Rockin' and Rollin' Tonight" also has a nice down-home feel, while "Funky Bitch" dunks in the funk without losing the blues. LETTIN' GO is indeed a mixed bag, sounding as if Seals had saved up all the energy of the past five years for these recording sessions. He didn't really need to try so hard -- A-list players like him are always welcome in the blues arena. Roberta Penn

All Music Guide

After spending his entire recording career with Alligator, Frank "Son" Seals' debut release on the Telarc Blues label is also the Chicago bluesman's first album of new material in almost six years. Although he lost part of his leg to diabetes in 1999, as somberly evidenced on the cover photo, little else has changed. Seals' gritty, booming vocals sound as authoritative as ever, and, if anything, the half decade between studio albums has added an even tougher quality to his traditionally gutsy singing. Working with the legendary Al Kooper on Hammond B-3 and top-notch musicians from Conan O'Brien's late night band gives Seals a firm, razor sharp backing on which to lay down his tough Chicago blues. The four-piece horn section and Kooper work wonderfully together. Along with Seals' beefy vocal attack and his fat, stinging guitar tone, he turns in a solid, uncompromising set of primarily original tunes. The 70-minute album would be stronger if some of the weaker tracks like "Osceola Rock," little more than a bland rewrite of "Jailhouse Rock," were omitted. But the album-closing jam with Phish's Trey Anastasio on a remake of Seals' "Funky Bitch" is energized and electric, and with excursions into gospel, light funk, gritty country, Southern R&B, and even a sensitive ballad, the guitarist expands his palette while staying within the blues framework. All of which makes Lettin' Go a sturdy, hard-hitting, and above all welcome comeback album from one of the acknowledged greats of Chicago blues guitar. Hal Horowitz