NYC REVIEW

Kenny Wayne Shepherd



The amazing Billy Cox

Move Over, Rover. Let Jimi Take Over.
By NATE CHINEN
The Experience Hendrix Tour, which rolled into the Hammerstein
Ballroom on Tuesday, borrows its name from the Jimi Hendrix
Experience, and from that band's epochal first album, "Are You
Experienced."

It also shares a name with Experience Hendrix, the company that
manages the legendary guitarist's estate, run by some members of the
Hendrix family (but as copious legal records will show, not all of
them).

What's in a name? The tour, which features the surviving members of
the Jimi Hendrix Experience along with a battery of impressive stand-
ins on guitar, lives up to its billing in terms of song choice,
style and execution. But as a command and a promise, "Experience
Hendrix" can't help falling short, if only because of the Post Options Labels for this post:
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irrevocable absence at its core. There are more truthful, less sexy
imperatives for what this package ultimately entails: venerate,
validate and commemorate, for starters.

That's not to say there was a shortage of thrills on Tuesday night,
especially for the guitar nerds in the house. During the first half
Eric Johnson confirmed his reputation for technical wizardry on back-
to-back versions of "Bold as Love" and "Are You Experienced,"
precisely etching some phrases and artfully smearing others. In a
rewarding contrast, he also teamed up with the Memphis blues
guitarist Eric Gales for "May This Be Love," a dreamlike ballad
based on a melodic drone.

Mr. Gales opened the show with "Purple Haze" and "Foxy Lady," two
classics just similar enough to warrant separation from each other.
But he did them justice, reworking the melodies to suit his deep and
roomy voice. The predatory tempo of "Foxy Lady" worked well for him,
and he indulged in some Hendrixesque tricks: swiping an arm along
the neck of his guitar, soloing with the instrument balanced behind
his head.

Billy Cox, who played bass with the second iteration of the Jimi
Hendrix Experience, joined Mr. Gales and later intermittently
returned. As for Mitch Mitchell, the influential original drummer
with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, he drifted on and off the stage,
but in a secondary capacity, as an accent or accessory. The
principal drummer for most of the show was Chris Layton, a
resourceful and indefatigable presence.

Among the evening's more faithful evocations were a subdued "Little
Wing," featuring David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos, and a
sprawling "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)," featuring the raucous
blues guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Even better along these lines,
though, was Jonny Lang, working in tandem with Aerosmith's Brad
Whitford on a powerhouse version of "Fire." Though hardly the most
dazzling guitarist on the bill, Mr. Lang was among the better
singers, and he threw himself headlong into the songs: he got
equally strong results out of "Spanish Castle Magic" and "The Wind
Cries Mary."

Still, it was a pair of elder bluesmen who brought the show to its
logical conclusion. Hubert Sumlin, an acknowledged influence on
Hendrix, infused "Killing Floor" with spindly commentary, working
with and against the groove. And Buddy Guy, in a track suit and a
fedora, set out to mop the floor with everyone who had preceded him.
There was not a speck of deference in his playing: not on his own
slow-drag tune, "Out in the Woods," and not even on "Red House," a
blues song written by Hendrix. But his defiant charisma felt true to
the spirit of the moment, and so did his scary authority. His was
the kind of experience that counts.

Experience Hendrix continues at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia on
Thursday, and at the Fox Theater in Detroit on Saturday;
experiencehendrixtour.com.