Live At The Spirit Store

Recorded at the Dundalk venue in January of this year, Live At The Spirit Store is the third album from blues guitarist Clive Barnes. This record features renditions of material from his first two albums, as well of covers of traditional blues standards.

One of these is a truly mesmerising take on the Robert Johnson song ‘Me And The Devil Blues’. Elsewhere, the record struggles to match this early highlight, but Barnes is quite clearly a gifted musician. His slide guitar work is mightily impressive, and one can hear echoes of the dustbowl epics of Ry Cooder.

So clearly recorded that you can hear the glasses clink in the background, Live At The Spirit Store offers indisputable evidence of Barnes’ musical virtuosity, even if his own songs lack the spooky brilliance of blues figureheads such as Skip James or Leadbelly. However, connoisseurs of the genre should have precious little to complain about.