Weekly Planet
Tampa, FL

CHRIS WHITLEY 
Live At Martyrs'


One of the 90's brilliant misfits, Chris Whitley delivered three albums for 
Columbia/Sony that combined desert blues, grunge, and sludge-rock.  The 
latter two were dismissed out of hand by Sony muckety-mucks and stiffed 
miserably.  "Live at Martyr's", recorded at a Chicago club during three 
nights last summer, streamlines the hotwired Whitley sound to one man with a 
Dobro and a grimy, overdriven amp.  The 15 track set ranges from such 
semi-successful early songs as "Living with the Law" and "Big Sky Country" to 
a couple of new tunes, and plenty in between.  Whitley puts out a magnificent 
din with his mixture of hard strums, fingerpicking and metallic slide. His 
sinister moan slips in and out of falsetto, adding extra menace to lines like 
"I'm gunning now/gasoline roll down her thighs".  Whitley's a guy who took a 
serious beat-down from the biz and plays on.  This is the roiling music of a 
survivor.