Hold Me

Performer: Big Brother & the Holding Company
Distributor: Ryko Distribution

Notes: Big Brother & the Holding Company: Sophia Ramos (vocals); Chad Quist, Sam Andrew (guitar); Peter Albin (bass guitar); David Getz (drums). Primarily known as the victims of the ultimate execs-steal-away-the-singer scenario, Big Brother & the Holding Company, in retrospect, can easily boast the following: they were the best band Janis Joplin ever had; they were a significant part of a certifiable classic with CHEAP THRILLS; and Sam Andrew and James Gurley were a bracing guitar tandem capable of searing, bluesy noise bursts--witness their solos on "Summertime," which anticipate Mudhoney's fuzzed tones by two decades. If their genre was acid rock, their take was hydrochloric, not lysergic. Unfortunately, as most of their post-Janis output attests, the band suffered greatly from her departure and has spent most of the '80s and '90s looking for someone able enough to hit the nostalgia circuit. On HOLD ME: LIVE IN GERMANY, singer Sophia Ramos handles quite admirably the Herculean task put to her--that is, fill in for the definitive '60s blooze singer. Ramos has a better range and technical control over her voice than Joplin, but she nails the icon's larynx-shredding freaky side with a stunning exactness. Her phrase-by-phrase aping of classic performances such as "Down On Me," "Summertime," "Women Is Losers," and "Piece of My Heart," comes off like the best karaoke act ever. Of course, the audience in attendance, the band, and any potential listener to HOLD ME, shouldn't be looking for much else. Also of note is Chad Quist, who takes over for James Gurley on guitar and kills it. A nostalgia exercise, yes, but a monstrously worthy and belatedly fun one.

Big Brother and the Holding Company was the group that backed 1960s blues-rock siren Janis Joplin. Their hallucinogenic charm lies in the gulf between the roots music they loved and the electrically charged, psychedelic-tinged music they actually played. Brimming with casual confidence and empowered by a sense of community, this band mixed free-spirited innovation with total honesty and commitment. At the end of the decade, Joplin departed for a solo career, though she would tragically depart from the world itself soon after.

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