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For any band, the loss of a charismatic lead singer and figurehead is a tricky thing to overcome. When that lead singer is a force of nature like Janis Joplin, it seems all but insurmountable.
And yet psychedelic San Franciscans Big Brother And The Holding Company did carry on, and these two later albums of deeply funky, soulful blues rock are a testament to their resilience. The songs have a loose, jam-band feel – from the swing of Black Widow Spider to the stripped-down blues of Sunshine Baby – that screams of the late-60s/early-70s dropout hippie culture they were central to.
With sleevenotes written by their late singer and guitarist Sam Andrew, care has been put into the artwork on this repacked twofer. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of the CD itself, as the tracklisting is in entirely the wrong order, songs popping up in the wrong place like disorientated meerkats. It’s a shame, because the music holds up all these years later, but maybe hunt down a version that doesn’t require you to sit there with Shazam working overtime in order to get your bearings.
