L.A. Getaway - A Sleazy blues bar in the Canyon

It's 1:30 am after a hard night of drinking. As you stumble back to your New Orleans Hotel, walking through the quagmire of spoiled beer and vomit that cover Bourbon Street, remnants of another Friday night in the Big Easy, you decide to stop off at one last bar. It's that darkened place just off the main drag away from the tourists, with a flickering neon sign and a passed out bum in front. As you wrap your hands around your fifteenth cold Black Voodoo beer of the night and grab a seat, a bunch of hairy, bearded guys climb up on stage and grab the instruments that the house band left behind. After a brief discussion of who's going to sit in on which instrument, the boys begin to play. L.A. Getaway has arrived.

From the down home boogie of "Bring it to Jerome," to the honky tonk of "It's your Love," and the gospel strains of "Long Ago,” L.A. Getaway bring it on home. A minor supergroup of sorts, L.A. Getaway are Joel Scott Hill of Canned Heat fame, drummer Johnny Barbata from the Turtles and Chris Etheridge, of the Flying Burrito Brothers. Armed with a handful of Crosby, Stills and Nashesque Laurel Canyon rockers, a case of beer and an armful of blues, these relative misfits came together to lay down some magic, a free form jam, in what turned out to be a one off recording.

Joel Scott Hill is just becoming recognized as one of the unheralded great white American Blues vocalists. Each inflection in his tone hints at a man who has seen his share of hard times. But don't think this album is a downer, far from it. L. A. Getaway is a rollicking blues biker bar of a good time. "Craney Crow," a midtempo boiling blues number reigns supreme on this bar room selection, with the haunting "Ole Man Trouble," coming in close behind. Elsewhere, honky tonk, barroom boogie like "Eyesight," and the title track make L.A. Getaway a secret stash of blues magic, a brief flash of lightning captured in a bottle. Recently reissued on Water CD's, a great re-issue company from San Francisco, it is definitely worth your time. Now shut up and pass the beernuts. --Racer X

Buy here: L.A. Getaway

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