John Hammond - Timeless (2014) [FLAC]

This live set, which was recorded at Chan's in Woonsocket, Rhode Island (a venue Hammond has played several times before) on May 4, 2013, features Hammond at his best, working solo with just a guitar, slide, and harmonica. He blasts his way through a pair of Tom Waits songs, the opening "No One Can Forgive Me But My Baby" and a version of "Jockey Full of Bourbon," turns in a spirited performance of Bobby Bland's "Further on Up the Road," pulls out the slide for a gutsy run-through of Elmore James' "The Sky Is Crying," and does what he's always done to country blues classics like Sleepy John Estes' "Drop Down Mama." There's also a Hammond original here, "Heartache Blues," although preserving the country blues as a performing art form is more up Hammond's alley than creating new blues compositions, and thankfully that is still his focus, even after some 50 years. The country blues got a hold of Hammond a long time ago and never let go, and Hammond never let go, either. There are a lot worse fates. (Review by Steve Leggett, allmusic.com)