''Live at McCabe's'' is an album of American

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

Norman Blake and

Nancy Blake Nancy may refer to: Places France * Nancy, France, a city in the northeastern French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle and formerly the capital of the duchy of Lorraine ** Arrondissement of Nancy, surrounding and including the city of Nancy ...

, released in 1975. It was recorded at

McCabe's Guitar Shop McCabe's Guitar Shop is a musical instrument store and live music venue on Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica, California, United States. Opened in 1958 by Gerald L. McCabe, a well-known furniture designer. McCabe's specializes in acoustic and folk i ...

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

. ''Live at McCabe's'' was reissued on CD in 1987 along with '' Directions'' by Takoma.

Reception

In his

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

review, critic Jim Smith wrote "Long cherished by Norman Blake's fans as one of the greatest flatpicking albums of all time, Live at McCabe's isn't as essential as some of the guitarist's studio records of the time (see Whiskey Before Breakfast), but there's a warm, ramshackle beauty about this concert that is every bit as charming."

Track listing

#"Introduction By Nancy Covey" – 0:38 #"Nine Pound Hammer" (

Merle Travis Merle Robert Travis (November 29, 1917 – October 20, 1983) was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and guitarist born in Rosewood, Kentucky, United States. His songs' lyrics often discussed both the lives and the economic expl ...

) – 4:07 #"Sweet Heaven When I Die" (Grant) – 3:59 #"Introducing Nancy Blake" – 1:10 #"Border Widow" (Blake) – 2:10 #""G" Medley: Green Leaf Fancy/Fields of November/Fort Smith" (Blake, Traditional) – 5:35 #"Dry Grass on the High Fields" (Blake) – 2:35 #"John Hardy" (Traditional) – 5:24 #"Arkansas Traveler" (Traditional) – 2:26 #"Medley: Bully of the Town/Bonaparte's Retreat/Richland Avenue Rag" (Traditional) – 3:22 #"Harvey's Reel" (Blake) – 2:00

Personnel

*Norman Blake –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

, vocals *Nancy Blake –

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

Production notes *Doug Decker – producer, engineer *Kirk Felton – remastering *Absalom Jackson – art direction, original cover artwork *

Jon Monday Jon Monday (born 1947 in San Jose, California) is an American producer and distributor of CDs and DVDs across an eclectic range of material such as Swami Prabhavananda, Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, Huston Smith, Chalmers Johnson, and Char ...

– art direction, original cover artwork *Jamie Putnam – art direction *Deb Sibony – design

References

{{Authority control Norman Blake (American musician) albums 1975 live albums Takoma Records live albums