AKA: Climax Chicago Blues Band

Climax Chicago Blues Band 1969 Album

Climax Blues Band

The CBB - as I affectionately call them - stood proudly next to their so-called betters in the British blues-rock movement during the late 1960's and early 1970's and cut a string of records which went relatively unnoticed, but were as groundbreaking as any act in the genre. Led by singer and multi-instrumentalist Colin Cooper, these guys cut a mean, dirty, working-class swath on their gradual way to success in America. The ironic thing was, once they achieved that success, they were unable to sustain it, and what followed them - pub rock and punk rock - the very movements which should have credited them, tossed them by the wayside as relics of a bygone era. The debut album was released under the moniker "The Climax Chicago Blues Band" in early 1969. This was a subject which would cause issues with the band Chicago (at the time, known as the Chicago Transit Authority) and would cause the group to eventually change their name, but for now, simply causes confusion from a collector standpoint. Content-wise, the album is a bit pedestrian, but what separates them from a lot of other blues-rock acts is the willingness to pen and perform their own compositions. But the only real hint of adventure comes on the very last track, "And Lonely", a sad piano ballad which foreshadows the adventure and pathos of what would soon be encountered on future albums.