This is Elvin Bishop's second band album for Fillmore since he left the Paul Butterfield unit for the West Coast. And even though I miss the harmonica playing of Apple Jack that gave Elvin's first Fillmore disc a down-home feel, this new album stands on its own merits. Still surgingly present is Elvin's blues - tinged rock guitar playing, and the more than able organ/piano-work of the underrated Stephen Miller. Apple Jack's place has been filled by Jo Baker, a female vocalist who doesn't knock me out, possibly because on tunes like "Hogbottom," "Be With Me" and "Feel It," she never gets more than a chance to scream in the background.

Exceptions to this are Jo's version of the Fention Robinson song "As the Years Go Passing By." where she wails the blues above Steve's organ and Elvin's echoic chord shifts - no match for Albert King's peerless version (on his first Stax album) but exciting nonetheless. Not to overlook the album highlight, "So Fine," that was originally released as a single last summer and was a Top 40 hit of sorts. – On it, Jo shares the vocal chores with the rest of the band on this Fifties revival effort, but it is her voice, pitched lazily above the others, that gives the song its compelling verve and intensity. Unfortunately, she is totally out of her element on tunes like "I Just Can't Go On," which limps along lamentably while "So Good" wanders similarly, is way too long (more than seven minutes), and isn't even saved by Elvin's super-moody solo. More cuts like the brilliant "So Fine" (that beats the Fiestas version all to hell) and "Years Go Passing By" would move Elvin's group out of the "soul" limbo, it's stuck in on this album, and back into what they do so well — the blues. (RS 74)

GARY VON TERSCH