The former gravel-voiced Butts Band shouter sounds riotously confident on this live album, which has no real agenda except documenting a hot night before a British college crowd. Roden's band is slick and proficient, with guitarists Bruce Roberts and Steve Webb being the standouts, though percussionist/saxophonist Ron Taylor gets lots of space, too. Roden and company manage to show themselves as diverse performers and crowd-pullers at the same time -- no mean feat when hits drove the engine of '70s mass-market rock. The preeminent sound is slinky, laid-back pop-funk, as exemplified on story songs like The Ballad of Big Sally or Me and Crystal Eye. Cut from similarly breezy cloth, In a Circle is an example of how Lowell George might have sounded if he'd grown up across the pond. The band stretches out on Can't Get Next to You, which dips into the blues bag, but Roden's husky howl shines brightest on the glistening title track (which also makes clever use of varying internal rhymes). There's also a blistering boogie in Jump Mama, where Roden pushes his throat in the manner of peers like Frankie Miller and Maggie Bell. The album ends on an unconventional note with a brief, piano-led reprise of Blowin'. Unlike many live albums of this period, there's no side-long solos to pad out an average evening -- just a proficient band and their frontman throwing down before a packed house. The story would change after Britain went punk, but there's no denying what Roden could offer. This isn't an easy album to find, but worth the hunt if you see it. ~ Ralph Heibutzki, Rovi

1		The Ballad of Big Sally
2		In a Circle
3		Can't Get Next to You
4		Me and Crystal Eye
5		Blowin'
6		Jump Mama
7		Blowin' [Reprise]