Further On Down The Road

Albert Collins, Roy Buchanan and Lonnie Mack – Further On Down The Road (Live at Carnegie Hall)

This concert was recorded December 5, 1985 at Carnegie Hall in New York. Alligator Records put together three of their premier recording artists, each a legend in his own right, and turned them each loose for a set in the legendary venue. Roy Buchanan died less than three years later and Albert Collins is gone now, too, which points up the importance of this video memoir.

The concert footage is interspersed with bits of interviews with Albert, Roy and Lonnie as well as many well known guitarists talking about the influences of these three on their playing. These personal remembrances add a lot to the video and show just how much respect their peers had for them and they for each other.

When I first saw this video, I have to admit, the only player I was really familiar with was Roy Buchanan. I’d heard of Albert Collins, but never really listened to him, and I only knew Lonnie Mack from his hits in the 50′s. I’d been a Roy Buchanan fan for years and really bought the video to see him.

As it turned out, Roy’s performance was the weakest of the three by far. He was heavily into echo and reverb at that time, for whatever reason, so much of his set was drowned in effects. I read some years later in a biography (“Roy Buchanan: American Axe”) that Alligator was not thrilled with Roy’s set as it was billed as a blues concert and he laid Led Zeppelin and some other things on them that didn’t fit at all. Not surprisingly, those didn’t make the video.

Albert Collins opened the show and blew the place apart. His incredible guitar tone and masterful playing knocked my socks off and his trip through the audience riding on the shoulders of a burly roadie trailing a mile-long guitar cord is not to be missed. He never missed a beat throwing out amazing licks while shaking hands with fans and whipping the crowd into a frenzy.

Roy’s set was next and ’nuff said about that.

Lonnie Mack did the third set and cranked out some really fine tunes that I’d not heard before. Based on my limited experience with his hits some 30 years earlier, I had no idea he could rock like that. Playing his vintage Flying V through a Roland Jazz Chorus for most of the set, he switched to an acoustic guitar for an entertaining and funny “Oreo Cookie Blues.”

Of course, the show ends with all three players and most of their respective bands on stage simultaneously, which made for some interesting logistics. Watching two keyboard players trying to share the same keyboard was almost as much fun as seeing Albert kick everybody’s butt during “Further On Down The Road”, the closing jam number.

This is one of my all-time favorite videos and I highly recommend it. It’s only available on VHS, unfortunately, but still well worth it.