Wasting no time since the 2008 release of their excellent Warpaint CD, The Black Crowes have returned with a live CD that presents that entire previous studio album and more on the appropriately titled Warpaint Live. This is not a new practice for bands to do in their career by delivering a studio effort and then releasing a concert CD or DVD film of the tour that supported it and such things have become commonplace for bands like Iron Maiden, Rush and Dream Theater and while The Black Crowes are very musically different from these acts, it was only a matter of time before the others followed suit on a usually successful practice. The double CD effort does its job by delivering the full Warpaint CD on the first disc from beginning to end and having heard this studio album I had to say that it works even better in the live sense. The Black Crowes are probably one of the finest artisans of the Blues Rock genre and it seems that when they get on the stage that they always manage to deliver a solid good time. If you don't believe me just listen to the crowd response between the song breaks. Warpaint was an album that very simply works well as a single piece of music to listen to and by doing it in its entirety in the live sense the band shows their own strong belief in this full body of work also. Favorites of mine come via the albums opening track "Goodbye Daughters Of The Revolution" and closer of "Whoa Mule" on the live "Warpaint" part of the show. From the sound of it, this is a show that I know that I would have enjoyed attending and it's the pureness and richness of musical tone from the Robinson brothers who win me over with note after note. Chris Robinson as a vocalist is really one of the best that this genre has ever produced and he sings with such passion that it's like a tangible thing.
The second CD finds the band delivering a bunch of covers and rare tracks and these are equally excellent for the listeners who have this one cranking on their stereo. It begins with a tribute to Robert Johnson and then gives you two rarities from the Crowes archive that are surely worthy of our attention. There is a great number originally penned by Clapton in "Don't Know Why" and a powerful Stones number via "Torn and Frayed" that finds Rich Robinson delivering an amazing guitar solo that would no doubt impress the Stones axe slinging Richards himself. This release is a nice companion piece to the recently released Brothers Of A Feather CD and DVD that the pair had given us about a year ago. There is a booklet that lines out the tracks and also has some interesting notes that lead us into the pages. There are no lyrics provided and the photos are rather sparse but that should not affect your purchase. If you have followed and enjoyed anything that the band has produced over the course of their career and still are a firm believer in their way of doing things then Warpaint Live will only strengthen your zeal for the band. One can only hope that this gets delivered on a full DVD film as well and at the time of my examining the CD I was not aware about this being the case or not. Only time will tell.