I offer my deepest apologies to those people who believe the Rolling Stones really were the "world's greatest rock 'n' roll band" because I'm about to commit rock 'n' roll blasphemy with this statement: Exile on Main Street, the band's 1972, double-disc LP, considered by most critics of the musical cultural elite to be one of the finest rock albums ever recorded, is an immensely bad set of songs. Maybe it's the very muddy sounding final mix that made every track, except for the two big hit singles, "Tumbling Dice" and "Happy," sound exactly the same, or is it the crudity of many of the songs. After all, what is there to like about a song titled "Turd on the Run?" Therefore, you may be surprised to find that I feel just the opposite about this compilation from Telarc consisting of ten songs from Main Street re-recorded by a crackerjack blues band along with a host of blues all-stars.
Exile on Blues Street is another in Telarc's series of CDs in which they take classic rock albums and record new blues versions of them. Two other classics they've reinvented are The Beatles' White Album, which the record company re-titled The Blues White Album, and Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde.
The studio band Telarc gathered for this CD includes Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon, formerly of Stevie Ray Vaughan's band. Each track has a different lead vocalist and often a different lead guitarist. Christine Ohlman does a hot version of "All Down the Line," Otis Taylor sings and plays guitar on "Sweet Black Angel" with Cassie Taylor on backup vocal, and Tommy Castro sets fire to "Rip This Joint." Another favorite is Lucky Peterson's take of "Ventilator Blues" and Tab Benoit steps to the plate with "Shake Your Hips." Jimmy Thackery closes the ten song disc with a fantastic "Rocks Off."
It is common knowledge that the Stones music was born from the blues, but they mostly played a hybrid fused with rock. This album is the real thing and is a great example of how the Stones would have sounded if they stayed in the genre rather than playing rock for more than fifty years. Listening to this CD will make you appreciate their music in a way you never have before.
Fortunately, "Turd on the Run" is nowhere to be found.
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