Bob Wiseman
The Legend
Blocks Recording Club
The title of this release comes from a performance Bob Wiseman did in Wolfville where he had never played before and the venue’s marque showed Bob Wiseman The Legend. The most vivid memory I have of the only time I saw Wiseman live is him yelling at the bar crowd to shut up and thinking he was a pompous jerk. Listening to The Legend, Wiseman’s first live release, I now know how wrong I was and why he was asking for silence. Wiseman connects with the audience through heartfelt songs and entertaining stage banner.
The Legend focuses on a single performance from Halifax in 2002 before he started releasing music on the Blocks Recording Club Record. It was selected from about thirty bootleg recordings he has received from fans. There are three tracks from his Theme and Variation release on Blocks but besides the politically charged “Bhopal” and “Just Tourists” the majority of the songs seem to be unique to this recording.
Regardless of whether the songs have been released previously these are raw recordings of Wiseman behind a microphone with only his guitar. Being a bootleg the sound of the recording is definitely not hi-fi but Wiseman’s style is pretty lo-fi and the recording is very clean so everything comes out in the wash.
After listening to The Legend I’m left wishing the bar crowd, all those years ago, had been silent. The next time Wiseman comes through town I will be there and you should too because besides from the Blocks website live shows are the only way to get this release.
By Rob Pingle
Sep 23, 2008
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