AMG Review of Live Together

Paul Collins
All Music Guide

A 1984 performance in Germany by Spencer Davis, reunited with his former drummer Pete York and with bassist extraordinaire Colin Hodgkinson. "Live Together" isn't an especially accomplished Spencer Davis live recording, but it's a very affable one: Davis banters with his audience in German throughout the set, and it's clear that everyone's enjoying themselves. Hodgkinson's finest bass work has always been in his blues covers, and it's shown to fine effect here in "Walking Blues" and "Sliding Delta Blues"; Davis himself turns in some tasteful guitar work in a pensive rendition of "Trouble in Mind." But the undeniable highlight is "I'm a Man." It's a hard one to go wrong with by any band, as it's a song simply incapable of not being rousing when played live. Still, Davis's washes of electric guitar and the insistent pounding by York make this version particularly worthy.