Strike Like Lightning
Anyone who thought Lonnie Mack was only a rock-guitar history book name-thanks to his seminal country-and-blues instrumental version of Chuck Berry's "Memphis"-got slapped upside the head by his 1958 Gibson Flying V guitar when this Stevie Ray Vaughan co-produced album appeared in 1985. On both fast and slow songs his fluid leads fulgurate like bolts from the blue, with additional illumination provided by his heavy, worn-and-torn singing voice. A gang of Mack's old Cincinnati cronies contribute glowingly as if at a roadhouse torching, while Vaughan supplies still more sizzle to the shuffle with "If You Have to Know" and four more.-- © Frank John Hadley 1993--From Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD