SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: PAT TRAVERS – GOING DOWN TO JACKSONVILLE – 1983

PAT TRAVERS
GOING DOWN TO JACKSONVILLE – 1983
CLEOPATRA RECORDS

Pat Travers has always been a hard-working musician. Besides recording somewhere in the neighbourhood of 20 studio albums since his debut in 1976, he has toured relentlessly. Travers has released a number of live albums, but he was also smart enough to record several other shows on his various tours. He has been going through his audio archives and finding shows to release. This album is a concert recorded on April 10, 1983, during his tour to promote his classic 1982 album, Black Pearl.

For this tour, The Pat Travers Band included Peter “Mars” Cowling (bass), Sandy Gennaro (drums) and Joey Jelf (backing vocals and blues harp). Keyboardist Don Harriss, who played on the tour, missed this show due to an injury during a softball game. This makes this particular show quite unique and unusual. However, the small but tight unit makes up for his absence and the result is a solid rock, blues, and heavy rock concert, luckily caught on tape.

“Everybody ready to rock ‘n’ roll?”, a moot question to the cheering crowd. The answer is a resounding “yes” as he launches into “Your Love Can’t Be Right”. It is a great way to open the show and album. Taken from his 1980 album, Crash And Burn, it has always been a fan favourite, and Travers and his band completely rock the song. You can feel the energy. And that is just the beginning. From here, Travers and his band launch into a fantastic set of new (at the time) and classic songs. “Rockin’” from the recently released Black Pearl is much more exciting live.  “Life In London” from 1977’s “Putting It Straight” is pure energetic with fine playing from Travers.

Of course the classics are here too, such as “Boom Boom (Out Go The Lights)” which ends the show and the album. Again, Travers tears it up with his guitar and vocals. “It is officially party time”, Travers announces and the crowd seems to be in agreement. And you can hear the fun in Travers’ voice with “Snortin’ Whiskey And Drinkin’ Cocaine”. You can hear the joy Travers is experiencing performing live.

Pat Travers is going through his archives, and he must be very happy with what he is finding. These are extremely well recorded concerts and serve as a great reminder just how good this particular band was. Travers is still playing and still sounding great, but these historic concerts take people of a certain vintage back in time, and younger fans can get a chance to hear a young and hungry band. The CD contains a bonus track, a studio recording, “Racing The Storm”.

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