• Newsletter Sign up
• Subscribe
• Back Issues
• Sample Issue
• Contact Us

PETER GREEN

From page 62 of Classic Rock Magazine May 2000

Cover of May 2000 issue.

'Hot Foot Powder'

(Snapper Music SMACD828) *****

No renaissance has been more welcome than that of Peter Green. Yet the Fleetwood Mac founder's return from a lengthy, drug-induced retirement has, to date, been an unusual affair. The tactic of breaking him back in gently with a live 'debut' album was followed by the acoustic 'Robert Johnson Songbook' and, most recently, last year's excellent, Pete Brown-produced 'Destiny Road'. Now Green diverts once more to the Johnson covers route with a 13-track effort that, while pleasant enough, risks losing the rock-fuelled momentum that has brought his music back to the national airwaves via Radio 2.

The album is technically credited to 'Peter Green with Nigel Watson and The Splinter Group an exercise in democracy acknowledging that, without his previously unknown fellow singer/guitarist, Peter would still be languishing in obscurity. That said, Green is the main attraction for anyone buying the album, and in this sparsely arranged format, the gap in vocal class is inevitably accentuated.

Live appearances in 1999 showed his confidence visibly returning, yet the laid-back nature of this album gives little opportunity for that trademark fluidity. Indeed, guest guitarists Joe Louis Walker, Otis Rush and Buddy Guy share what solo limelight there is. On the plus side, Dr John's inimitable piano is very much at home, but you have to wait for the solo pleading of the final track, 'Come On In My Kitchen', to savour the album's highlight. Very much a 'part two' to the previous Johnson-inspired effort this might have been a better bonus disc for a group album. But, in view of past events, maybe any Peter Green album is a miracle! Michael Heatley