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Super sidemen fall flat in spotlight

Flame Out
Flame Out
By the Memphis Horns

Lucky Seven / Rounder Records: 1992

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This review first appeared in the January 29, 1993 issue of the North County Blade-Citizen (now North County Times).

Reedman Andrew Love and horn player Wayne Jackson have been together as the Memphis Horns since they first backed Otis Redding almost 30 years ago. In the '80s, with the resurgence in popularity of blues and hard-core R&B, demand for their time as session players skyrocketed, with appearances on dozens of other artists' albums.

On their own new release, they try to capture that Redding/Booker T and the MGs groove. While the chops are there – Love and Jackson and their band can flat-out play circles around anyone else – something seems to be missing.

It's as if they tried to do too much here, to make the perfect album. In the process, a spark of spontaneity was lost; without that spark, the pieces never fall into place.