LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

• 180 gram audiophile vinyl

Featuring Christine Perfect (better known as the future Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac) the British ensemble Chicken Shack offers up a solid set of blues-influenced rock on their 1968 LP, fully titled 40 Blue Fingers Freshly Packed And Ready To Serve.

This LP was a promising debut, especially noteworthy for Stan Webb's Freddie King-inspired guitar playing and Christine Perfect's vocals. Webb does justice to his mentor with two instrumentals, King's "San-Ho-Zay" and his own "Webbed Feet," and Christine proves the ideal counterpart: one of the few pianists paying homage to King's longtime collaborator Sonny Thompson.

It remains their finest work; Perfect left the band in 1969 when she married John McVie of Fleetwood Mac. Pianist Paul Raymond, bassist Andy Silvester, and drummer Dave Bidwell all left in 1971 to join Savoy Brown.

The album - with a nice spare sound, typical of Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon label- will be enjoyed again, this time on audiophile vinyl.

Track Listing

Side A

• The Letter
• Lonesome Whistle Blues
• When The Train Comes Back
• San-Ho-Zay
• King Of The World

Side B

• See See Baby
• First Time I Met The Blues
• Webbed Feet
• You Ain't No Good
• What You Did Last Night