Soul Sacrifice and Prisoner Of Love are two Janis Joplin titles released in November, 2006 on the Empress Valley premium label Halcyon.  There have not been many Joplin silver titles released recently with only Honolulu 1970 (Jamrec JSS-001) and Drinkin' Big Mama seeing widespread release the past two years.  Soul Sacrifice presents the complete forty-five minute broadcast made by VPRO and broadcast over Dutch radio.  This tape saw release in 1996 on Summertime (Moonraker 101) on the Moonraker label.  Halcyon use a tape from a rebroadcast on Dutch Radio 2 on August 16th, 2006 by KRO and is two seconds longer than the older source.  In the words of one collector, it has been remastered "up to 5.5 db of the original dynamic...from around 4 khz above the FM."  The result is that the tape is simply one of the best sounding bootlegs by any artist available.  Not only the highs and lows, but the middle frequencies are crystal clear giving a three dimensional stereo audio experience unmatched even by many official recordings.  The transitions between songs, which some have mentioned on previous releases as being rough, are very smooth on this version making this an absolute joy to listen to.  Some have placed this recording on April 1st, 1969, but April 11th is the correct date.  Janis toured Europe only once in her short career.  On the first of April she and the Kozmic Blues Band were taping an appearance in Stockholm for Swedish television. 

The first show is the April 11th show in Amsterdam and the played seven shows in Europe ending with a sold out show at the Royal Albert Hall in London on April 21st.  The Kozmic Blues Band consisted of Sam Andrew on guitar, Brad Cambell on bass, Richard Kermode on organ, Terry Hensley on trumpet, Terry Clements on tenor sax, Roy Markowitz on drums and Cornelius "Snooky" Flowers on vocals and baritone sax.  They played their first show on December 21st, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee and the horn section added to the aural texture of the music and they play some pretty advanced arrangements.  The tape on this release seems to be the complete set.  Compared to the set lists of the other European shows, "Raise Your Hand", "Me" and "Work Me Lord" were commonly played but omitted at the Concertgebouw.  The show begins with a five minute, very catchy number dominated by the saxophones and a bouncing bass line creating a cabaret atmosphere before Janis introduces her first song of the evening.  "Next tune is an old rock and roll tune done by the Chantelles in the fifties.  A song called 'Maybe'".  They deliver a faithful rendition.  Afterwards it is straight into Gershwin's "Summertime" with the band  playing a baroque three-voice fuge beneath the impassioned vocals of Joplin.  Her association with this song dates to the Big Brother And The Holding Company days and some have said she never sang a poor version of this classic and having this impressive version in such stellar quality is worth the price for this title alone.  

"Try (Just A Little Bit Longer)" is the second song from their latest LP I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!  At the end Joplin says, "I'd like to introduce someone, this is Snooky Flowers.  Yea, that's my man!  I saw you moving out there, you can't fool me.  I saw you boogie-ing in the seats.  Snooky here is going to play a tune called 'Can't Turn You Loose'."  They extend the Otis Redding tune to almost eight minutes with long raps by Joplin, talking about all the good looking cats who don't know anything and Flowers speaking about the men with good looking girls.  The song is great fun and they are having a blast.  The show continues with the oldies beginning with "Combination Of The Two".  Big Mama Thorton's "Ball And Chain" follows and is segued directly with the expected "Piece Of My Heart".  The final three songs are good but sound very rushed and gives the impression the band were in a hurry to end the show in order to meet the limits of broadcast radio.  It is a shame since it would have been great to have classic versions of these songs in this sound quality.  The overall effect of the show is great, however, and this is an essential release to own.  Halcyon has produced tremendous releases in the past year and this is another one to add to the list and to the collection.  The front photo is an outtake from the Pearl photo session and the insert is single sheet instead of the four page inserts of older releases.  The cover has the hologram stars embedded in the paper.  Overall this is another quality release by Halcyon and is very much recommended.