Texas guitar ace Gary Clark Jr., who at his best sounds like nothing so much as the past and the future of the blues, has been compared to guitar icons like Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. His playing is a powerful and inspired mix of blues roots with some contemporary soul and hip-hop touches, but it remains the blues always, and the blues is perhaps even more central to his sound than it was for either Hendrix or Vaughan. Clark's major-label debut, 2012's Blak and Blu, stretched the blues thing a bit thin in places, and it only partially resembled his live sets, which were wild, gritty, and often beautifully elegant surveys of electric blues, with Clark's solid originals settling nicely with vintage covers, all with no frills and gimmick-free. Clark, for all the press about it, has never really been about being clever and innovative with the blues, but prefers instead to stand for its strong tradition, and just bring what he brings to the table without a whole lot of fuss. That's what his live sets are about, and this double-disc live album, recorded during a 18-month-long tour in 2013 and 2014, reveals a clearer and more in-focus look at what Clark offers than Blak and Blu does. Mixing select blues covers with standout Clark originals from Blak and Blu, Live is a wonderful introduction to a fine young guitar player, songwriter, and singer. Opening with a thunderous version of Robert Petway's "Catfish Blues," this set never falters through Clark originals like the Chuc