The Compulsive Gamblers "Live & Deadly - Memphis/Chicago" 2003

The liner notes to Live & Deadly describe the Compulsive Gamblers as "the 1990s' most unusual Memphis bar band" (their clumsy grammar, not mine) and compared to the crude and gritty sounds of their earliest work, this set (recorded during two May 2002 gigs that briefly preceded the band's demise) captures the Gamblers sounding like a bar band in all the best senses of the phrase…
...These performances find Greg Cartwright and Jack Yarber (fronting a loose but emphatic band, complete with organ, pedal steel, and trumpet) in strong and soulful form, wearing their love for classic R&B and C&W sounds on their sleeves, and in a better world every corner bar would have a band this powerful offering up suitable background music for dancing and drinking. If the slop factor is a tad higher here than you might hear from, say, the average act on Alligator, the strength of the songwriting (both in Cartwright and Yarber's originals and the stack of well-chosen covers) makes it clear these guys are dead serious about the kind of music that made their hometown of Memphis great (add a little polish and "Don't Come Looking for Me Now" could be a country hit). While the closing tracks offer up just the sort of frantic abandon you'd expect, for the most part Live & Deadly: Memphis-Chicago records the Compulsive Gamblers following the straight and narrow closer than you'd expect, but without losing a bit of their sweat and intensity in the process. Cool stuff. - AllMusic Review by Mark Demingtrax:

01 Bad Taste 02 Your Happiness 03 Way Down In The Hole 04 I'm That Guy 05 Don't Come Looking For Me Now 06 New Romance 07 Mind In The Gutter 08 Sour And Vicious Man 09 Stop And Think It Over 10 Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right 11 Wait A Bit Joe 12 I Don't Want To Laugh At You 13 Name A Drink After You 14 Two Thieves 15 Pepper Spray Boogie 16 Quit This Town