Rating 4/5
Review:
A welcome record, but not an LWIII classic
This is a recording of a radio broadcast made in Cleveland in 1972. Loudon Wainwright plays solo in a studio with a small live audience, in an extremely informal atmosphere. There's some good stuff on it, it's a nice record of Loudon's live style of the period and I'm glad to have it but it's not a brilliant album, to be honest.
There is some material which wasn't on studio albums but the songs are largely taken from his first three albums, for which I have a particular affection,. I still have my original vinyl copies bought at the time, and he signed the first two for me when I went to see him play live a couple of times on his first UK tour in 1972, so you can tell I'm a hard-core fan :o). I saw him play quite a few of these songs then, so I'm really pleased to have a reminder of that time and Loudon's witty, self-deprecating way of relating to an audience. The performances here are pretty good, but it sounds to me as though Loudon was a little disorientated by the shambolic-sounding way the recording was set up, so it doesn't quite have the electric excitement I felt at the time. The sound is decent but not brilliant, and the whole thing is one of those albums I'm glad to have heard and I'm glad to have, but which I won't play that often, I think.
LWIII fans like me will want this, of course, and no-one could be disappointed in it, but if you're just looking for early LWIII recordings, I'd recommend the first three studio albums well before this. Certainly if you're looking for a place to start with him, try the early studio albums first or Older Than My Old Man Now for a more recent gem. It's good, but it doesn't have quite the brilliance of a lot of Loudon's work.
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