This came out in 2003 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
For a guy who’s nothing short of a local musical icon, Big Dave McLean sure has a small back catalog. Despite more than three decades of playing — and umpteen jillion sets and jams and showcases and tours — the veteran singer-guitarist has only recorded a handful of albums. And his latest, Blues From The Middle, is his first release in nearly five years.
But so what if Dave isn’t exactly churning ’em out like sausages? Good music, like good food, is worth waiting for — and there’s no denying McLean has cooked up one helluva tasty platter with these 14 slices of well-seasoned blues. It’s also a well-balanced meal, with rusty-throated Dave and his rough ’n’ ready backing band The Perpetrators serving up raw Delta weepers, greasy Chicago groovers, sweet folk-blues janglers and even smokin’ blues-rock stompers — all part of a menu that deftly mixes blues classics like Bukka White’s Fix’n to Die and Little Walter’s You Know It Ain’t Right with McLean originals like Muddy Waters for President and St. Mary (At Main). Call it the blues-plate special — and get it while it’s hot. After all, who knows when McLean will dish up another one.
