All Your Love I Miss Loving: Live at the Wise Fools Pub Chicago

by Sean WestergaardDespite deservedly being one of the towering figures of Chicago blues guitar, Otis Rush's recorded output has been both intermittent and inconsistent for various reasons. After his famed Cobra and Chess sides of the '50s and very early '60s, his career trudged along in first gear but it looked like he might break through in the '70s with a handful of solid albums. For whatever reason, this was not to be and Rush virtually disappeared from the scene again until the mid-'90s (except for live albums of varying quality surfacing from time to time). All Your Love I Miss Loving: Live at the Wise Fools Pub Chicago is a recently unearthed live set from early 1976, originally recorded for Chicago's WXRT Sunday Night Unconcert series, and immediately takes its place as one of Rush's best live offerings for several reasons. First off, this was his working band of the time. Bob Levis, Bob Stroger, and Jesse Green all came on board in 1975 for Rush's Delmark debut, Cold Day in Hell, and remained until at least the end of 1977 when Live in Europe and the unfortunately overdubbed and edited Lost in the Blues were recorded. Other live albums have been marred by fair to middling pickup bands. Not only is it his working band, it's the first live Otis Rush album recorded on his own turf; Wise Fools Pub was just about the only Chicago club Rush played at regularly during this time. Excellent sound seals the deal.... Read More...