A1 	I Can't Keep From Crying	4:25
A2 	Steve's Song	4:55
A3 	You Can't Catch Me	4:14
A4 	Two Trains Running	11:20
B1 	Wake Me, Shake Me	5:15
B2 	Cheryl's Going Home		2:35
B3 	Flute Thing	5:58
B4 	Caress Me Baby	7:12
B5 	Fly Away	3:30

Roy Blumenfeld - Drums
Danny Kalb - Guitar, Vocals
Steve Katz - Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals
Al Kooper - Keyboards, Vocals
Andy Kulberg - Bass, Flute 

Produced by Tom Wilson (Dylan, Zappa), the Blues Project's second effort was their finest hour. In less than a year the enthusiastic live band had matured into a seasoned studio ensemble. Steve Katz's features are lightweight folk but Al Kooper reworks two gospel themes ("Wake Me, Shake Me," "I Can't Keep from Crying") into ambitious blues-rock compositions, and Danny Kalb proves he's no mere folkie on extended versions of "Two Trains Running" and "Caress Me Baby." Bassist Andy Kulberg switches to flute and Kalb gets psychedelic on the jazzy "Flute Thing," penned by Kooper. ---Dan Forte, AllMusic Review

The Blues Project were one of the hottest live acts of the time and one of the first album oriented bands. Not all blues, with certain tunes rooted in folk and this album bearing a psychedelic edge (nearly the American “Aftermath”) but listen to them cook through some classic blues standards and soulful originals, and the name starts to settle in just fine.

This Greenwich Village group lit up audiences weekly at New York’s Au Go Go Cafe. Before they cut their first record, the smokin’ hot Live At The Cafe Au Go Go, they were joined by session player Al Kooper who was looking to gig and improve his chops on the Farfisa organ. By the time Projections was released, they had become a hard-edged party band that were well-equipped to extend their jams for a drugged out San Fransisco scene, and their eagerness to incorporate other musical forms and experiment beyond the blues put this band ahead of their time.

Al’s “Kooperphone” (actually called a Tubon) on Can’t Keep From Crying supplies an opening dose of out-of-control psych. A completely unexpected classical suite introduces Steve’s Song, a folksy groover with light touches of fuzz. And it’s hard to not become a classic ’66 record with a track like the hard slow blues, Two Trains Running, running 11 minutes 30 seconds. Another toss-for-a-loop is a Jazz-lounge number featuring Andy Kulberg on the uncleverly named Flute Thing. Cheryl’s Going Home is a riff-based standout, but when they perform bluesy shuffles like Wake Me Shake Me and Caress Me Baby you know they’ve hit their stride. The blues numbers give the album its vintage appeal.

Though they could smoke an audience, they were unable to score a hit song. However, one of the last tracks they cut before Al Kooper left the band may be one of the best unknown singles of the year: No Time Like The Right Time.

The Polydor/Chronicles anthology has the Projections album on disc two, with scores of live material and outtakes from the first album on disc one and detailed liners. ---Brendan, therisingstorm.net

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CD1
01. Intros
02. Louisiana Blues
03. Steve's Song
04. I Can't Kept From Crying
05. Caress Me Baby
06. Flute Thing 1
07. Wake Me Shake Me
08. The Way My Baby Walks
09. Love Will Endure
10. Jelly Jelly

CD2
01. Cheryl's Going Home
02. You Can' Catch Me
03. Talk
04. Shake That Thing
05. Talk
06. Catch The Wind
07. You Can't Judge A Book
08. Talk
09. Unknown
10. Hoochie Coochie Man
11. If You Don't Come Back

Danny Kalb - guitar, vocals
Steve Katz - guitar, vocals
Al Kooper - keyboards, vocals
Andy Kulberg - bass, flute
Roy Blumenfeld – drums

August 30-September 6 1966
September 7-15, 1966

The Blues Project is a band formed in 1965 in Greenwich Village, New York City, lasting with its original line-up until 1967. While their songs drew from a wide array of musical styles, they are most remembered as one of the earliest practitioners of psychedelic rock, as well as one of the world's first jam bands.

In 1965 Danny Kalb joined with Steve Katz and Andy Kulberg, Roy Blumenfeld and Tommy Flanders to form The Blues Project. Later, when Flanders left the band, he was replaced by Al Kooper. They recorded three studio albums, played quite frequently at the Cafe Au Go Go and Murray the K's last "submarine race-watching" spectacular at the RKO 58th Street theater in New York, and had several concert tours. In 1965 The Blues Project performed an eleven minute rendition of Muddy Waters' "Two Trains Running" in electronic form with Waters in the audience. When asked what he thought of it, Waters said, "You really got me." Kalb later said, "If I'd dropped dead at that point on the spot because of what we thought of Muddy Waters, then my life would have been well spent." Personalities, drugs and the 1960s lifestyle took their toll on the band. Katz left to join Blood, Sweat and Tears.

Guitarist Al Kooper is best known for helping organize Blood, Sweat & Tears (although he did not stay with the group long enough to share its popularity), for providing studio support for Bob Dylan when he went electric in 1965, and also brought together guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills to record the Super Session album.

Live at the Matrix is a 2 CD bootleg recording featuring the Blues Project's best lineup -- Kooper, Katz, Kalb, Kulberg, and Blumenfeld -- live at the Matrix club in September of 1966. The Matrix, a renovated former pizza shop, was a nightclub in San Francisco from 1965 to 1972 owned in part by Marty Balin of the Jefferson Airplane, and was a nesting ground for what eventually became known as the "San Francisco Sound" in rock music.

This small venue originally located on Fillmore St. in San Francisco, showcased artists the likes of Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Blues Project, Butterfield Blues Band, Country Joe & the Fish, The Doors, Electric Flag, Grateful Dead, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Hopkins, Hot Tuna, Howlin' Wolf, Taj Mahal, Steve Miller Blues Band, Moby Grape, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Santana, Sopwith Camel, The Sparrow (just before they changed their name to Steppenwolf), Velvet Underground, The Wailers, Johnny Winter, and many more.

Since it was originally created and run by musicians, The Matrix was always popular with local and visiting musicians, so, on their off nights, many of them would come there to hear other groups they knew or just to hang out. Known musicians never paid a cover charge.

This CD includes The Blues Project performing a lot of the stronger material from their first and second albums and is very close in sound to the studio versions. Keep in mind it is less than studio quality, however very listenable for those who are true fans of early psychedelic blues/rock and its history.

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CD1:
1.  I'm Troubled 
2.  Back Door Man 
3.  Violets of Dawn 
4.  Goin' Down Louisiana 
5.  Hoochie Coochie Man - (previously unreleased) 
6.  Parchman Farm - (previously unreleased) 
7.  You Go and I'll Go With You 
8.  Catch the Wind 
9.  I Want to Be Your Driver 
10. Alberta - (previously unreleased, alternate take) 
11. Have You Ever Had the Blues? - (previously unreleased) 
12. Way My Baby Walks, The 
13. Bright Lights, Big City - (previously unreleased) 
14. Jelly, Jelly Blues 
15. Spoonful 
16. Who Do You Love? - (previously unreleased, alternate take) 
17. Love Will Endure 
18. I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes 
19. Friday Night City 
20. Where There's Smoke There's Fire 

CD2:
1.  I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes 
2.  Steve's Song 
3.  You Can't Catch Me 
4.  Two Trains Running 
5.  Wake Me, Shake Me 
6.  Cheryl's Going Home 
7.  Flute Thing 
8.  Caress Me Baby 
9.  Fly Away 
10. No Time Like the Right Time 
11. Mean Old Southern 
12. Gentle Dreams 
13. Lost in the Shuffle 
14. Black Night 
15. Visions of Flowers 
16. Little Rain 

The Blues Project includes: 
Steve Katz (vocals,guitar,harmonica)
Al Kooper (vocals,guitar,keyboards)
Danny Kalb (vocals,guitar)
John McDuffy (vocals,keyboards)
Tommy Flanders (vocals)
Bill Lussenden (guitar)
John Sebastian (harmonica)
Andy Kulberg (flute,bass)
Don Kretmar (saxophone,bass)
David Cohen (piano)
Fritz Richmond (washtub bass)
Roy Blumenfeld (drums)

The most complete Blues Project collection ever assembled, the two-disc Anthology compiles 36 tracks taken from their three albums on Verve and their two records on Capitol as well as rare singles, previously unreleased songs and alternate versions, and material from solo projects. ---Jason Ankeny, AllMusic Review

The very things that made the Blues Project one of the most phenomenal bands of the '60s are the same things that made the band a short-lived one. Drawing on a crazy quilt of influences--including folk, pop, jazz, psychedelia, and, yes, blues--the band was known to perform scorching versions of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf classics one minute, then turn around and do mellow contemporary tunes by the likes of Donovan and Patrick Sky the next. A band whose onstage energy was boundless, their studio work didn't always come across quite as well, and sharply divided attitudes about approach and repertoire (plus assorted personal problems) eventually sundered the band. Anthology is the best available sampling of the group's oeuvre, collecting material from their albums on Verve and Capitol and tossing in some rare singles, solo material, and previously unreleased tracks for good measure. You don't often hear the Blues Project mentioned in reverent tones, as are other, similar acts of the era, and that's too bad. This set makes a case for their generation. --Daniel Durchholz

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A1 Introduction 
A2 (Electric) Flute Thing 
A3 I Can't Keep From Crying 
A4 Mean Old Southern 
B1 No Time Like The Right Time 
B2 Love Will Endure 
B3 Where There's Smoke, There's Fire 
B4 Wake Me, Shake Me

Line Up:
*Danny Kalb - Lead Guitar, Vocals
*Al Kooper - Organ, Vocals
*Steve Katz - Rhythm Guitar
*Roy Blumenfeld - Drums
*Andy Kulberg – Bass

The Blues Project came together in NYC's Greenwich Village in 1965. The original quintet was guitarists Danny Kalb and Steve Katz, bass and flautist Andy Kulberg, drummer Roy Blumenfeld and vocalist Tommy Flanders. Session musician Al Kooper joined after the band failed a COLUMBIA audition. Although his keyboard skills were limited, Kooper contributed respectable vocals and good original songs.

In 1966, they recorded “Live At Cafe Au Go Go” and “Projections” for the Verve Forecast label. By early '67 when work began on “The Blues Project Live At Town Hall” (FT/FTS 3025), Kooper had left the group (Katz followed him later in the year).

There's only one cut here actually recorded at Town Hall. The balance is other "live" a performances at Stony Brook College, plus studio tracks with added applause. Kooper's "No Time Like the Right Time," the group's only charting single, is a studio take augmented with applause that's reminiscent of the Animals. "Mean Old Southern" rolls as fast as an express train at full throttle. The extended "Flute Thing" opens with organ and flute playing in unison.

"I Can't Keep From Crying" is a fairly standard rocker. "Love Will Endure" features Katz's baritone vocal. It's another simulated "live" recording. "Where There's Smoke" is a decent Kooper leftover. The album closing "Wake Me, Shake Me" nicely illustrates how Blues Project sounded in-concert: tight, intense and improvisational. --- Annie Van Auken, rockasteria.blogspot.com

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