Jerry Lee Lewis

The success of last year’s Last Man Standing certainly lived up to its title in proving that, at 71, the Killer is still fulfilling his pact with the Devil. Therefore, the release of a live version of the album, this time featuring several new duets, comes as no surprise. The duets are stacked on the DVD half of the package and while Lewis appears a tad waxy, he rarely concedes an inch to the odd parade of guests, including Tom Jones, Solomon Burke, Norah Jones, John Fogerty, Don Henley, and Ron Wood, performing what amounts to a living wake. The irony is that up until Last Man Standing Lewis’s ego rarely ever allowed him to share the spotlight with anyone, so there is something sad in seeing him reduced to essentially playing a stooge to the likes of Kid Rock and Chris Isaak. But thankfully, the package also includes a CD of Lewis’s solo performances from the show, a predictable grab-bag of his standards, which nonetheless are a worthy testament to his only slightly diminished fire. For the essential Lewis live document get 1964’s Live At The Star Club, Hamburg, but for fans of Last Man Standing, LMS Live is about as much of a proper companion piece as anyone could expect.