Crazy story - a guitarist from Kent ditches his instrument en route to New Orleans and compensates by doing it Steinway. That was a good few years ago, since when Cleary has become a pianist whose name is ranked alongside those of Professor Longhair and James Booker, even by Crescent City locals. On this live date, recorded in Australia last year, he and his trio excite and enchant, turning up the heat to full power on Longhari's "Go to the Mardis Gras" and The Meters' "People Say" before easing the tempo back to early morn downtown for "Port Street Blues." The band stay tight throughout, providing the perfect surround-sound to Cleary's rugged vocals, Eddie Christmas proving a drummer of particularly musical ability, aware of light and shade, while guitaris Big D Perkins and bassist Cornell G. Williams add an array of licks to savour.