BLUEPRINT MAGAZINE Autumn 2001
Rag Mama Rag - Live
Rag Mama Records RAGMA04CD
Basically, you can thank the French government for this release. Rag Mama Rag had no immediate intentions of releasing a new album, but this came about because they were recorded and videotaped at the Salaise Blues Festival in France last year, thanks to arts funding from various levels of the French government - local, regional, etc. They forgot about this until, some months later, they received a package containing a well-recorded CD and a professionally-edited videotape. So, they decided to edit the recordings down and issue this enhanced CD which features 14 audio and 4 audio-visual tracks.
The sound quality is excellent for a live recording, apart from a couple of incidences of overmodulation when Ashley Dow was using his Hawaiian lap slide guitar, and so is the video quality when played back on a computer. I saw the band play live a few weeks ago and their performances definitely get stronger all the time, something which is confirmed by this release. It would be all too easy to overlook Debbie Dow's excellent contributions on percussion and blues harp, given that Ashley handles all the lead vocals and guitar parts (and very well too, I might add).
This CD is further proof of Rag Mama Rag's strength as a unit and I am sure it will sell by the barrow-load to happy punters at their gigs. Catch them in the UK next September when they next tour over here.
Rating 8
Michael Prince
