antiMusic.com: Paul Rodgers & Friends - Live at Montreux 1994 DVD Review

Paul Rodgers & Friends - Live at Montreux 1994 DVD
by Kevin Wierzbicki

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Paul Rodgers, the former lead vocalist for Free, Bad Company, the Firm and Queen + Paul Rodgers, gives a brief present-day introduction to this film that was shot in 1994. He advises viewers that he and some band members are sporting questionable haircuts and "high-waisted" pants in the vintage footage but further advises that the music is pretty good nevertheless. He is right on both counts; the obviously out of style fashions are a bit amusing initially but it only takes a few minutes to get wrapped up in the show. Rodgers had at the time recently released a blues album, Tribute to Muddy Waters, and about a third of the material on Live at Montreux is drawn from that record, including a version of Sonny Boy Williamson's "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" where Queen's Brian May joins the band for some incendiary guitar work. May stays on for a few songs, playing scorching solos on "I'm Ready" and "Little Bit of Love." Rodgers, who otherwise concentrates on singing, accompanies himself on acoustic guitar on "Muddy Water Blues." The set also includes a few big hits from Rodgers' back catalog; Bad Company's "Feel Like Making Love" and "Can't Get Enough" along with Free's "All Right Now" with May back on guitar duties. The show ends with bluesmen Eddie Kirkland, Luther Allison, Kenny Neal, and Robert Lucas joining Rodgers, May and the band (with Steve Lukather, Neal Schon and Jason Bonham) for a rousing take on Willie Dixon's "Hoochie Coochie Man." Also available on CD.

DVD

Paul Rodgers & Friends - Live at Montreux 1994 DVD
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