Genre: Blues | Label: Ruf Records | FLAC (tracks)

Few stars of the '60s have reinvented themselves as successfully as Marianne Faithfull. Coaxed into a singing career by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham in 1964, she had a big hit in both Britain and the U.S. with her debut single, the Jagger/Richards composition "As Tears Go By" (which prefaced the Stones' own version by a full year). Considerably more successful in her native land than the States, she had a series of hits in the mid-'60s that set her high, fragile voice against delicate orchestral pop arrangements: "Summer Night," "This Little Bird," and Jackie DeShannon's "Come and Stay with Me." Not a songwriter at the outset of her career, she owes more of her fame as a '60s icon to her extraordinary beauty and her long-running romance with Mick Jagger, although she offered a taste of things to come with her compelling 1969 single "Sister Morphine," which she co-wrote (and which the Stones later released themselves on Sticky Fingers).

The 20th Anniversary of the Wentus Blues Band from Finland was celebrated in Helsinki at the Alexander Theatre, originally built by Russian Czar Alexander II. The show, sweetened by various special guests, surely satisfied the Blues needs of performers and audience alike. The whole atmosphere was reminiscent of Martin Scorsese's "The Last Waltz" - a film that studied the giant concert given by The Band and superstar guests in San Francisco in 1976.
The show featured an impressive line-up of rock and blues legends, such as Eddie Kirkland, Louisiana Red and Lazy Lester, ex-Rolling Stone Mick Taylor, Kim Wilson from the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Omar Dykes from Omar & The Howlers, Barrence Whitfield - a real rocker in the savage style of Little Richard, Sven Zetterberg and Clas Yngstrom from Sweden and the great Eric Bibb.