Live at San Quentin (CD - 1991)

All selections recorded live at San Quentin Prison on May 25, 1990 except "Peace To The World".

All tracks are digitally remastered.

B.B. King's pleas to the literally captive audience for a round of applause for the guards watching over the prisoners on his first live album in nearly a decade is almost laughable. Unlike Johnny Cash's smirking irony on his album recorded at the same facility in 1969, where you can sense Cash's disdain for the captors is just as strong as the inmates', King seems to be totally oblivious to the fact that these are prisoners being held against their will. And that's the problem with this competent, if unremarkable, record: King is merely going through the motions. He could just as well be playing to a blue-blooded audience under the stars at some shed in the Midwest. ~ Michael Gallucci

Much gutsier than the REGAL album, this is in harmony with the patrons as King plays to a different audience; the inmates of one of America's toughest prisons. King devotes a lot of his time every year performing to prisoners, and he coummunicates on this album without patronizing them. This is a fairly predictable set but the high level recording (presumably to block out any obscenities) makes it one of his most exciting live albums. Songs he has played a thousand times sound fresh and energetic, notably "Everyday I Have The Blues" and "Let The Good Times Roll." minimize