Chicken Shack - Andalucia Blues (1970)

Chicken Shack were founded as a r'n'b trio in 1965 by Stan Webb (guitar and vocals), Andy Silvester (bass guitar), and Alan Morley (drums), and were later joined by Christine Perfect (vocals and keyboards) in 1967, and at one point also included Chris Wood, later to join Traffic. The band named themselves after the Jimmy Smith album 'Back At The Chicken Shack', and were at the forefront of the British blues boom of the late 60's alongside Fleetwood Mac, Black Cat Bones, and The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation. They made their first UK appearance at the 1967 National Jazz and Blues Festival, and signed to Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon record label in the same year, releasing their first album 'Forty Blue Fingers, Freshly Packed And Ready to Serve' in early 1968. The band enjoyed some commercial success, and Christine Perfect was voted Best Female Vocalist in the Melody Maker polls two years running. They had two minor chart hits with 'I'd Rather Go Blind' and 'Tears in the Wind', after which Perfect left the band when she married John McVie of Fleetwood Mac, and she was replaced by Paul Raymond from Plastic Penny. After being dropped by Blue Horizon in 1971, Paul Raymond, Andy Silvester, and Dave Bidwell all left to join Savoy Brown, and so Webb reformed the band as a trio with John Glascock on bass and Paul Hancox on drums. This line-up recorded their 1971 album 'Imagination Lady', but the line-up didn't last, with Glascock leaving to join Carmen, while Webb was recruited for Savoy Brown in 1974 and recorded the album 'Boogie Brothers' with them. Since 1977 Webb has revived the Chicken Shack name on a number of occasions, with a rotating membership of British blues musicians including, at various times, Paul Butler (ex-Jellybread, Keef Hartley Band), Keef Hartley himself, Miller Anderson, and ex-Ten Years After drummer Ric Lee, but their most productive and critically acclaimed period was definitely 1968 to 1970, when they produced some of the best British blues on record. This album collects singles, b-sides, radio sessions and out-takes that slipped through the net during those three years, and if you don't know the band and like what you hear, then you really should check out their first two albums, which are classics of British blues.  

Track listing

01 Six Nights In Seven (b-side of 'Worried About My Woman')
02 Worried About My Woman   (single 1968)
03 Night Is When It Matters (BBC session 1968)
04 It's Okay With Me Baby (single 1968)
05 When My Left Eye Jumps (b-side of 'It's OK With Me Baby')
06 Hey Baby  (b-side of 'When The Train Comes Back' 1968)
07 The Things You Put Me Through (b-side of 'Tears In The Wind' 1969)
08 I'd Rather Go Blind (single 1969)
09 Night Life (b-side of 'I'd Rather Go Blind')
10 Hideaway (previously unreleased 1970) 
11 Smartest Girl In Town (previously unreleased 1970)