a whole new respect for randy as a guitar player and spirit as a band. a few years ago i bought a spirit cd because i always really liked i got a line on you but i didnt care for the rest of the album. but i wanted to here them live cause thats the real deal.i was shocked at what a great band they were WOW!!!!!!.I grew up in the 60s so ive heard it all,so i thought.it sounds somewhere between jimi hendrix and joe satriani. i love it thank you cd baby for keeping great rock alive!mark hegstad minnesota

Another 10 star-2 disc,posthumous release of live Spirit. Randy and Ed with Mike Nile had toured 90-91 to promote Rapture In The Chambers.When Nile Left in 92 to pursue other musical endeavors and be with his family so Randy worked occasionally with Scott Monahan [key-bass] and Liberty Loria-Bass guitar until 96. Occasionally, Nile would become available as well as George Valuck. This band toured from 89-96 as the Tent Of Miracles Band.This 2disc set is a must for any jam-band fan as well as the live Spirit seeker.There is a lot of clasic material here;[Soldier,All Along The Watchtower,Dark Eyed Woman,I Got A Line ON You,Victim Of Society,Holy Man,Fresh Garbage,Taurus, Darlin` If,Animal Zoo and Turn To The Right.]This disc also contains 8 tracks off Tent Of Miracles and more from Rapture In The Chambers.Buy a copy and 1 for a friend.

It is hard to think of this as being a 'live album' per se, especially since it is quite a bit longer (almost 160 minutes) than your typical live album. Rather, as the liner notes imply, this is meant to reflect a Spirit set list from the 90s (to some extent), and because of that, it probably comes off a bit better than either of the two Spirit live albums [those being the 1978 live album, released in numerous incarnations, as well as Live At La Paloma]). The major benefit that this has over other live sets is that the expanded playing time allows the track listing to be fleshed out by some of the more "obscure", yet extremely good, tracks by Spirit that never made it to live albums, and that alone makes it worth having. Though I kinda wish that there had been a bit less emphasis on the "Tent Of Miracles" album (though, understandably, this live material emanates mostly from that era), as 8 of that album's tracks are here in live versions (no "Neglected Emotion", though), this also features the appearance of two tracks from the oft-neglected Rapture In The Chambers album, the first official live appearance of material from their Mercury albums (not counting covers as well as the numerous Tampa Jam transmutations), as well as other more obscure tracks and 6 tracks which are making their first official appearance on this album (though I can only hope that the studio version of Future In My Hands will be released someday). Unfortunately, there are some sonic flaws with this set which may deter more aurally acute listeners, but overall, this is a solid live set and an especially good buy at this price. One can only be thankful that Randy, like a few others in the past (Sun Ra, Frank Zappa, etc.), had the foresight to try to preserve as much of his music as possible.

This is a must have for any Randy California fans or Spirit fans. For the average fan, most of the later music will be unfamiliar, but it is all good. All "jam bands" should listen to how a song can go on for a long time and still be interesting. There is enough music on this collection to keep me in fresh Spirit for a long time.