Steve Miller - guitar; Bobby Winkelman - guitar, vocals; Lonnie Turner - bass; Tim Davis - drums
The Steve Miller Band burst onto the San Francisco ballroom scene in 1966 with a unique mixture of amplified blues and sonic experimentation. Miller was an excellent songwriter and arranger, skills which made him a huge star in the '70s, while this 1969 incarnation of the group conveys a band still firmly entrenched in the blues and extended improvisation. Original bassist Lonnie Turner and drummer Tim Davis were still on board here, although Turner would leave a few months later, only to rejoin in the '70s and co-write "Jungle Love." Bobby Winkelman, formerly of Lafayette's finest psychedelic band, Frumious Bandersnatch, had recently joined the group and would be on board for their next album Number 5.
The current album at the time of this recording,Your Saving Grace, was the band's fourth, having been produced in San Francisco and London with layers of keyboards and guitar overdubs. On stage, the group went for a more raw, stripped down approach as can be heard on these set-closing jams recorded at Fillmore West. The first one begins well in progress with Winkelman handling lead vocals on a medley of familiar blues tunes before shifting into a riproaring reprise of "Your Old Lady," the song that likely began this lengthy jam. The second is a modal excursion into psychedelic territory, a style familiar to fans of the early Miller Band, but not well represented on his albums. No hits are to be heard here, but this is a fine example of Miller's strength as a guitar player, a factor that would become decreasingly obvious as he ventured through his multi-platinum decade of the 1970s.