Johnson’s touring band, a crackling four piece unit including dynamic harp player Steve Weston, adds ragged power. He doesn’t bother trying to reach the high notes anymore, but that fits this bar band, gutbucket blues boogie just fine. In no way did the tight recording schedule harm. Released on the Chess record label in the UK, the disc is being issued in North America by Universal Music Enterprises. Johnson’s chunky rhythm and lead lines drive the music and Daltrey’s whiskeyed, often lecherous voice growls and gets inside the music’s groove. Due to Wilko Johnsons late-stage terminal cancer, the clock was ticking when Going Back Home was recorded. One of the projects he’s undertaken was teaming up with Who frontman Roger Daltrey to record an album of 10 Johnson-penned, and one cover, R&B/blues/rock and roll songs called Going Back Home. Rather, both men tear it up on eleven tough performances that exude a drive and feral energy reminiscent of what they sounded like in their scrappy beginnings over four decades ago. Give Daltrey credit for participating in what is likely Johnson’s last recordings, but this is no tame sympathy project. When a besuited Daltrey emerges to run through their last-minute collaboration album of Wilko and Feelgood numbers Going Back Home, and add epic rock pomp to their cover of Dylan's carnival wife. Feelgood founding guitarist Wilko Johnson, diagnosed with incurable cancer before the week long session that yielded these tracks, has always lived and breathed that vibe. Through eight previous solo albums, Who frontman/singer Daltrey has never consistently captured the essence of gritty blues that informs his lifelong work in that band. The Going Back Home title of this one-off collaboration between the two British rock legends indicates its contents.
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