Throughout their existence as one of the South's best live bands, Wet Willie's major problem has always been the projection of the vibrance and enthusiasm of their stage show onto vinyl. Their earlier efforts have vacillated between a too loose "downhome revival" groove and an occasionally stuffy approach to precision that has, on alternate albums, negated both the band's professionalism and...

Wet Willie's pronounced sense of dynamics, a trait that owes more to the South's soul tradition than to the Allman Brothers, has always separated the group from other Southern bands. My initial fear upon approaching Manorisms, which was produced in England by Gary Lyons (Foreigner) for a new Yankee record company (Epic), was that the rough edges would be blunted in the search for a more commercial...

Capricorn has made its smartest move in the Wet Willie band's young career by putting the group on a stage in front of an audience and turning the doggone tape machines on. The band's first live album—long overdue—is the truest representation yet of what Wet Willie really sounds like; it will do nothing to dissuade those who already know the group, and it will likely win Wet Willie a...

Wet Willie is the young five-man group originally from Mobile, Alabama, that's been touring with the Allman Brothers Band lately, and winning a bunch of new friends. The group's admirers note a similarity between their boys and the Stones. The only obvious reason for the comparison is Jimmy Hall, the band's lead singer. Hall has a voice strut and an air of raucous elegance not unlike Jagger. But...

One of the nicest things about Left Coast Live is that it's a single album, which isn't meant as a slam against Willie so much as against the imitative marketing technique that has glutted us with double sets since Frampton showed rockers the way to big bucks. What makes the record a winner, though, is the good-rocking ease with which Wet Willie ran through this Roxy set. Though they've never...