Jeremy Spencer – Precious Little

Precious Little is a big surprise — a late-life comeback by slide guitarist and singer Jeremy Spencer, who’s been largely missing in action since he left a Fleetwood Mac tour in 1971 to join a religious cult called the Children of God. The early Fleetwood Mac, arguably Britain’s best blues band, was snakebit, having also lost the brilliant guitarist Peter Green to drugs and mental illness. In recent years, Green has returned to recording, but the results have been tentative, and less than inspired. By contrast, Spencer (playing here with a Norwegian blues band) sounds both confident and relaxed throughout this set of parlor blues, and his slide guitar is nothing less than virtuosic.

Spencer has always been a freak for Elmore James, and on “It Hurts Me Too”, his supple slide solos hover and dart like a hummingbird. He also cops the rollicking vibe of the James classic “Dust My Broom” for his own “Dr. J”. Spencer rocks on his midtempo shuffle “Trouble And Woe” and shines on a sweet folk-blues rewrite of “Corrina, Corrina” titled “Serene Serena”. He also indulges his love of offbeat ’50s rock with “Please Don’t Stop”, a rockabilly tune originally recorded by Fabian.

Spencer’s “Bitter Lemon” opens the disc with dulcet slide licks and the admonition to take “that bitter lemon, squeeze it into sweet lemonade.” In 1971, Spencer was a slide-happy rock star; today, he’s a satisfied mind who sounds like he never stopped practicing.