It’s hard to believe it’s already that time of year, but Record Store Day 2026 is right around the corner (Saturday, April 18). Here’s the first of several titles we’re highly recommending you seek out at your local vinyl store.
Freddie King – Feeling Alright: The Complete 1975 Nancy Pulsations Concert (Elemental Music)
Just seeing that this is a previously unreleased 3-LP live recording from blues slinger Freddie King issued in cooperation with King’s estate is, frankly, enough for us to say go ahead and grab a copy of this limited edition while you can. Perusing the 16-song tracklist will only draw you further in, with plenty of familiar titles both from Freddie’s own catalog and regular repertoire (“Have You Ever Loved a Woman?”, “Sen-Sa-Shun”, “Going Down”, “Mojo Boogie”) and blues standards that include “Sweet Little Angel”, “Got My Mojo Working”, “The Things I Used to Do”, “Stormy Monday Blues”, “Sweet Home Chicago”, “That’s All Right”, and “Messin’ with the Kid”.
For those needing a bit more convincing, we can assure you that hearing this set will only help confirm that this is one you’re going to want to add to your collection, regardless of how few or many other Freddie albums you might already own.
Recorded live in front of more than 50,000 fans at the Nancy Jazz Pulsations Festival in Nancy, France, in October 1975, the album was sourced from original tapes from the French national public broadcasting agency and captured King a little more than a year before he died at age 42. While the tracklist itself is already mighty impressive, listeners will be pleasantly surprised to hear some of the many touches Freddie and his band added throughout the set: the opening, more than 17-and-a-half-minute “Have You Ever Loved a Woman?”, for example, starts off with nearly 10-and-a-half minutes of playing–including a 20-second sustained guitar note from King that then brings in the rest of the instruments in full force–as well as band intros and solos before Freddie tears into the song’s vocals, incorporating some unadvertised “Rock Me Baby” and “The Sky is Crying” (the latter smoothly and soulfully sung by Freddie’s brother Benny Turner, who played bass in Freddie’s band) along the way, with other Easter eggs and treats throughout the collection’s six sides including some unlabeled “Dust My Broom” in the middle of a “Hey Baby”/”Mojo Boogie” medley, a “Got My Mojo Working” teaser that kicks off a, well, “sen-sa-shun”al, boogeying medley of King’s own “Sen-Sa-Shun”, Magic Sam’s “Looking Good” and John Lee Hooker’s “Boogie Chillun”, and another long sustained note (this time reaching 25 seconds) on the swinging “Whole Lot of Lovin'” (B.B. King).
Freddie’s stinging guitar playing is of course spectacular, paired with his soulful, gravelly–often growling–vocals, which do just as well blazing through numbers like “Going Down”, “Messin’ with the Kid” and “Got My Mojo Working” as on such slower tracks as “That’s All Right”, “Stormy Monday Blues”, and “The Things I Used to Do”. The band is in top form, with some particularly great playing on keys from Alvin Hemphill (organ) and Lewis Stephens (piano), joined by Ed Lively on guitar, Calep Emphrey on drums, and Benny Turner on bass (who also accompanies Freddie on vocals on the creeping “Wee Baby Blues”).
It’s encouraging to hear how excited and engaged the audience is throughout the set, cheering and chanting between songs, and clapping along through numbers like the groovy “Feeling Alright” (Dave Mason) for which the collection is titled, a jazzy “Sweet Home Chicago”, the “Boogie Chillun” segment of that otherwise instrumental medley, and during the jam that concludes the closing “You’re the One”, for just a few examples. And that’s exactly as it should be: this is a guy whose style and playing directly influenced the likes of Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and countless others, with the influence on Clapton especially apparent through Freddie’s playing on tracks such as the creeping “The Things I Used to Do” and “That’s All Right”.
Also worth checking out is the band’s cover of “Sweet Little Angel”, which includes some great vocals as well as another round of band solos.
Altogether, it makes for a terrific set that anyone who considers him- or herself a blues fan will want to own. If you can’t snag it on vinyl, do yourself and your friends a favor and watch for it on CD or digital formats the week following its Record Store Day vinyl premiere.