Personnel: Janis Joplin (vocals).
Big Brother & The Holding Company: James Gurley, Sam Andrew (guitar); Peter Albin (bass); Dave Getz (drums).
Full Tilt Boogie Band: John Till (guitar); Richard Bell (piano); Ken Pearson (organ); Brad Campbell (bass); Clark Pierson (drums).
Engineers include: Fred Catero, Dan Healey, Owsley.
Recorded between March 1968 and July 1970.
Most Janis Joplin aficionados still claim that her four studio albums never captured the true rock & roll fire of her live performances. The 14 live tunes on IN CONCERT certainly seem to support that argument. This album captures the two significant phases of Joplin's brief-but-celebrated career. The first eight tracks feature her original band from San Francisco, Big Brother & the Holding Company. Big Brother had a raw rock & roll spirit that was perfectly suited to Joplin's earthy voice and boisterous stage presence. With guitarists James Gurley and Sam Andrew creating an acid-blues maelstrom behind her, Joplin belts out intense, stunning versions of "Down on Me," "Piece Of My Heart," and the Moondog-penned "All Is Loneliness."
Joplin split from Big Brother in 1968 and the remaining six tracks on IN CONCERT were recorded in the summer of 1970 with the Full Tilt Boogie Band. Though Big Brother's reckless abandon is replaced by their successors' assured professionalism, these fine versions of Joplin standards like "Ball and Chain" and "Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)" are the stuff of which rock & roll legends like Joplin are made.