Personnel: Dave Mason (guitar, vocals); Jim Kruegar (guitar); Mike Finnigan (keyboards); Gerald Johnson (bass); Rick Jaegar (drums).
Through relentless touring in the mid-1970s, Dave Mason built up a concert audience that didn't necessarily translate into a record-buying audience, and this double-live album, released at a time when double-live albums were all the rage (remember Frampton Comes Alive?), was intended to address that problem. (Jim Krueger even contributed some Frampton-style "voicebox" guitar to "Goin' Down Slow.") It did demonstrate that Mason had a tight touring band and a repertoire of rock 'n' roll standards to draw from, as well as such interesting acquisitions as the Eagles' "Take It To The Limit" and the Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin '," and while it didn't achieve the career breakthrough intended, it did give Mason time to craft the studio album that would achieve that breakthrough. (It also gave Columbia versions of such earlier Mason songs as "Feelin' Alright?," "Pearly Queen," "Sad And Deep As You," and "Only You Know And I Know.") (Originally released by Columbia Records as Columbia 34680, Certified Live was reissued on CD by One Way Records as One Way 26078 on August 29, 1995.) ~ William Ruhlmann