Review: Sean Chambers ‘Live from Daryl’s House Club’
By Hal Horowitz
Those unfamiliar with blues rocker Sean Chambers’ name, or the music on his previous eight albums, need only know he served as band leader in Hubert Sumlin’s backing group for about five years to appreciate his credentials.
As Howlin’ Wolf’s longtime shotgun-riding guitarist, Sumlin was associated with one of the undisputed legends of the blues for decades. Afterwards, as the musician went on to a solo career, he was a mentor to Chambers. It’s impossible to overstate the importance of that relationship. It was so critical to Chambers’ career that his previous studio release, 2021s ‘That’s What I’m Talkin’ About-Tribute to Hubert Sumlin,’ was a recap of tunes he played while supporting the late blues icon who passed in 2011.
Previous releases showed Chambers to be a superb, fiery, blues-bathed rocker in the shadow of Stevie Ray Vaughan (he once led an SRV tribute act), Johnny Winter and particularly Rory Gallagher. The latter gets a nod as his rollicking, signature version of “Bullfrog Blues” gets covered by Chambers’ on this second live release. He unloads in front of a small but appreciative audience, backed by the rhythm section who supported Kim Simmonds in the final years of Savoy Brown. Naturally there are some classic Brown tunes, including scorching takes on “Street Corner Talking” (nearly nine minutes worth) and Brown’s version of Muddy Waters’ “Louisiana Blues.”
It’s a rousing set.
Chambers kicks off with the roaring original instrumental “Cobra” before digging into the swamp-infused, ZZ Top-inspired “I Need Your Loving” (the show closes with Top’s “Brown Sugar” (not the Stones’ song). He then moves into the pulsating rock of “Red Hot Mama” singing “she knows how to blow my fuse.” Elsewhere “Sweeter Than a Honey Bee” is reprised from an earlier album, injected with chunky chords as the Brown guys provide rugged backing and Chambers resonates with gutsy vigor. His thick Vaughan-styled tone combines with Gallagher’s notorious raucous sweat-soaked flannel shirt intensity.
He picks up slide for an excursion down to the Delta on the George Thorogood permeated “You’re Gonna Miss Me.” It’ll sear your ears as he slithers up and down the fretboard with high octane drive that starts in fifth gear and up-shifts from there.
The mood eases for Howlin’ Wolf’s slow blues “Louise,” a song Sumlin likely covered in every show. But even when the atmosphere takes a rare breather, Chambers’ discharges stabbing leads like his fingers are aflame, combining short bursts of flash with less frantic movement, pushing and pulling the song with impressive dynamics. He’ll sometimes stop playing for a few seconds, enhancing the drama before diving back in. It’s the height of showmanship which the crowd eats up, as well they should.
The title track of the slightly more subdued “Trouble and Whiskey” (“trouble used to be my lover and the bottle was my only friend” he laments, completing the thought with “it’s all I ever used to know”), is revisited and punched up a notch with Chambers’ torching notes, slathering them with Albert King’s soul.
Echoes of Walter Trout and Tab Benoit are evident too, inspirations celebrated for the blistering attack Chambers also displays in every performance of ‘Live from Daryl’s House Club.’
Hubert Sumlin would be proud.
Listen to “I Need Your Lovin'” HERE
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