Canned Heat
★★★★ Future Blues ELEMENTAL MUSIC. LP Classic Heat’s last blast. There was always something ghostly about Al Wilson’s otherworldly falsetto, most famously heard in Canned Heat’s Going Up The Country. The singer/harmonica player/guitarist was the band’s secret weapon. While the others were all superb musicians, Wilson brought a striking originality to the Heat’s interpretation of the blues. In addition to that voice, he experimented with Indian music in the mix, heard here in the title cut, while the juxtaposition of his clean fingerpicking and Harvey Mandel’s electric single notes on Shake It And Break It makes for thrilling teamwork. This was the last album featuring Heat’s classic line-up – Wilson overdosed a month after its 1970 release. Also notable is the group’s hit cover of Wilbert Harrison’s Let’s Work Together, sung by frontman Bob ‘The Bear’ Hite, capturing a yearning that, like Wilson, would be too soon gone. Michael Simmons