Reiter in
The raw intensity and category-defying daring of this posthumous release reminds us how great was the loss when Chris Whitley died in November 2005.Reiter Inis about as live an album as one can record in the studio and as close as the mercurial Whitley would come to the essence of punk rock. Since his virtuosic guitar remains much on display, the results seem to find a common bond between  Jimmy Page and Johnny Thunders. In fact, Whitney thunders like Led Zeppelin in a muscular rendition of Willie Dixon's "Bring It on Home," a trance-inducing cover of the Flaming Lips' "Mountain Side," and the original "I Go Evil."  Other covers range from the album-opening stomp of the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog" to the throb of the Passions' "I'm in Love with a German Film Star" and Gary Numan's "Are Friends Electric?" Yet the quieter intimacy of the almost wordless "Inn" and two poems, "Cut the Cards" and the German/English "Reiter In"--both of which evoke the specter of mortality--is equally powerful and revelatory. A fitting epitaph, and a transcendent power surge.--Don McLeese