$8.00
The King of the Cigar Box Guitar's first live solo album, "Stealing Cigarettes". Recorded at the New Jersey Cigar Box Guitar Festival 2007 & features his cigar box guitar version of Prince's "Purple Rain."
This is everything a cigar box guitar concert should be: gritty, deep-grinding and lowdown. I was there and saw it all...
Due to a severe bout of depression, Shane Speal almost didn't play this show. He was hiding in the back room for hours prior to the show, bumming cigarettes, tuning and re-tuning his custom made 6 string cigar box guitar (double coursed strings) and constantly changing his setlist in his mind.
Gerry Thompson had just finished a rocking jug-band inspired set when Shane took the stage. The crowd was stunned silent when he turned up his short-wave headset mic and plugged in his instrument. He just SAT there, destroyed. Someone in front of me whispered, "is he going to even play?"
Yeah, he played. Dammit, did he play. Speal delivered one of the deepest and most gut-wrenching shows I've ever witnessed. Never before had his songs been played with so much heart. Call it "Fear and Loathing in Jersey" if you will...
By the time he finished with the grittiest cover of Purple Rain (with altered lyric, "You say you want a king but I just can't make up my mind"), the audience was transformed. His performance took them thru Hell and returned them redeemed in the end.
Luckily, the tape was rolling and this recording was captured.
Songs:
Good Morning Blues (Leadbelly cover)
Slow Motion
Path of Nails
Love in Vain (Robert Johnson cover)
Can't Get You Outta My Mind
Fishin' Blues
These Frustrating Blues
Purple Rain
DETAILS:
For fans of Jug Fusion, this is a must (six of the eight songs are from the original JF album). Earlier this year, Speal took the stage in the midst of a bout of depression with just a handful of songs close to his heart. Gone were the goofy guitar pyrotechnics and Century 21 jacket in favor of the deepest stripped down Delta-punk blues he's ever performed. Don't get us wrong, there's some mean playing in there; but in this show, it's grinding harder and reaching soulfulness he never before obtained.
"Path of Nails" became a Hindustani improv as Speal mixed the Timothy Renner tune in with his own "Blue Raga". "Love in Vain" is performed solo and blazing electric. He opens the Robert Johnson song with his own "Presbyterian Lullaby" from his Surreal I album as an opus to the classic. Vocals (his best singing performance in years) are sung thru his trademarked "short wave radio" headset mic for a Delta punk sound, a'la Scott H. Biram and Bob Log III.
8 songs.
33 minutes.
Comes with a 16 page mini zine booklet.