Lightning in a Bottle

Disc 1
1	Senie Zelie / Angélique Kidjo 3:47
2	See That My Grave Is Kept Clean / Mavis Staples 4:03
3	Gamblin' Man / David "Honeyboy" Edwards 4:08
4	Love in Vain / Keb' Mo' 3:20
5	Sitting On Top of the World / James Blood Ulmer 5:14
6	Jim Crow Blues / Odetta 5:04
7	St. Louis Blues / Natalie Cole 3:52
8	Men Are Just Like Street Cars / Mavis Staples 4:25
9	I Can't Be Satisfied / Buddy Guy 2:58
10	Strange Fruit / India.Arie 2:40
11	Hound Dog / Macy Gray 3:28
12	The Midnight Special / John Fogerty 4:31
13	Where'd You Get That Sound / Larry Johnson 0:54
Disc 2
1	Okie Dokie Stomp / Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown 2:48
2	Coming Home / Bonnie Raitt 3:26
3	The Sky Is Crying / Warren Haynes 7:32
4	I'm a King Bee / Steven Tyler 4:20
5	The First Time I Met the Blues / Buddy Guy 4:12
6	Big Chief / Neville Brothers 3:27
7	I Pity the Fool / Shemekia Copeland 4:58
8	Killing Floor / David Johansen 4:04
9	Turn on Your Love Light / Solomon Burke 3:27
10	Down in the Valley / Solomon Burke 3:20
11	Voodoo Child / Vernon Reid 5:17
12	Minnesota Blues (aka Black Jack Blues) / Mos Def 5:44
13	No Boom Boom / Fine Arts Militia 4:10
14	Sweet Sixteen / B.B. King 6:31

Barnes & Noble

You’d have to look far and wide to find a concert bill filled with as many impressive blues and other popular music artists as the February 7, 2003, Radio City Music Hall concert “Salute to the Blues.” Among the featured guests were Allison Krauss, Angelique Kidjo, Mos Def, Natalie Cole, and India Arie as well as Odetta, Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Cray, Solomon Burke, and B. B. King. The two-CD set is the soundtrack to the Martin Scorsese–produced film of the same name. Constructed as a blues trip from Africa to the Delta to Chicago, then spreading out to include blues branches as far-reaching as rap, the album is a stirring testament to the current vitality of the music. The first striking element is its pristine sound. This is a set so bright that Angelique Kidjo comes right into your living room with her soaring “Senie Zelie,” which begins the concert. The artists stay right there with the listener through B. B. King’s closing “Sweet Sixteen.” This is partially due to a relatively stable house band that lends some unity to the sound. And many of these players are already icons: Dr. John, Levon Helm, Ivan Neville, Danny Kortchmar, and Steve Jordan are among the house band members. There are enchanting and endearing moments, astonishing revelations, humor, and pathos on Lightning in a Bottle. Avant-garde guitarist James “Blood” Ulmer plays and sings a straight-ahead version “Sitting on Top of the World” with Allison Krauss’s fiddle recalling the importance of the instrument in the Mississippi Sheiks’ original version of the song. Odetta brings the civil rights struggle into the present with her concise but powerful introduction to “Jim Crow Blues.” Natalie Cole tries to distance herself from the blues -- as many popular African-American artists have done over the decades -- by saying “I don’t know why I’m here.” But then, drawing on the style of Dinah Washington, she sings a rousing “St. Louis Blues.” Cole also joins blues-based singers Ruth Brown and Mavis Staples for the humorous “Men Are Just like Street Cars.” David “Honeyboy” Edwards’s acoustic “Gamblin’ Man” is a Delta delight. Buddy Guy’s acoustic “I Can’t Be Satisfied” and his electric “First Time I Met the Blues” show this giant’s versatility. Solomon Burke delivers the soul of the blues like no other; the listener can almost see his luxurious cape being removed as he heats up “Turn On Your Love Light.” Contemporary blues artists Shemekia Copeland and Robert Cray give “I Pity the Fool” the fire and ice of Bobby Bland’s original interpretation. In many roots music tributes, rock artists come off as if they were looking in the mirror rather than connecting with sounds that laid the groundwork for rock ‘n’ roll. That is not the case with Lightning in a Bottle. John Fogerty is so humble in introducing “The Midnight Special” that he says “I hope I don’t mess this up” before performing a joy-filled and totally appropriate version. There could be no better rock stars than Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry to cover the braggadocio and sexually charged “I’m a King Bee.” Bonnie Raitt’s slide guitar on Elmore James’s “Coming Home” is true to both the roots and the fruits of the blues. Chuck D’s performance, in contrast to the other hip-hop artists on the bill, is both smart and interesting. The rapper turns John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom” into an antiwar anthem, “(No) Boom Boom.” While keeping the drive and beat of the original, Chuck D and the band move in and out of tune, taking its intensity to new heights. The net proceeds from the concert, the film, and this recording go to the Blues Music Foundation, which supports blues artists who have fallen on hard times or never made it to the big time. That generosity and the spirit of these tribute CDs make this monumental album a deal that no one should turn down. Roberta Penn

All Music Guide

Lightning in a Bottle is the double-disc soundtrack to the documentary film of the same title directed by Antoine Fuqua and shot at a February 7, 2003, concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Billed as a "Salute to the Blues", the show featured veteran blues musicians as well as a younger generation of players and artists either directly working in the genre or deeply influenced by it, and the running order follows the evolution of blues from Africa, up the Mississippi, and through Chicago and beyond. With a crack house band of Steve Jordan and/or Levon Helm on drums, Dr. John on piano, Willie Weeks on bass, and Danny Kortchmar on guitar, Lightning in a Bottle has quite a few high points, including Macy Gray's version of Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog," Bonnie Raitt's "Coming Home," and the deep Southern gospel soul of Solomon Burke on "Turn On Your Love Light." Also impressive is David "Honeyboy" Edwards' stark and haunting solo acoustic rendering of "Gamblin' Man." Mavis Staples arguably stole the show, however, with her huge, shuffling, and ominous take on Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean." The shifts and mutations of the blues from an acoustic music to an electric one are traced, ending in Chuck D and the Fine Art Militia's thundering rap version of John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom." The CD set lacks some of the music actually performed in the film, however, so the best way to catch this moving concert in its entirety is on DVD, which also includes backstage footage and interviews. Steve Leggett