C.S. Lewis, the professor, children's book author, and Christian apologist once wrote on the problem of pain. Our inability to understand it as a phenomenon, he said, stems from the limits on our perception. Feeling pain is primarily a sensory experience. How can you analyze what you feel as you feel it? Similarly, analyzing pain requires reason. And once you think about pain rationally, you are no longer feeling it in the moment. Similarly, Let's Hide Away and Dance Away with Freddy King is one of those albums that appeals mostly to two categories of listeners: dancers and guitarists. The dancers, as is their wont, couldn't care a hair what's going on musically so long as it moves them. And guitarists, looking to pick up a few tricks from a master, cease to consider the music from a purely emotional perspective. Of the three wise "Kings" of the electric blues (the others being Albert & B.B.), Freddie is the only one whose greatest hits were more often than not instrumentals. And, as this album's title implies, these are songs meant for soirees, ditties to dance to. Relegating King to the realm of "dance music," however, would overlook the impact he had on subsequent scores of guitarists, like Eric Clapton, who took his techniques and naturalistic sound to new heights. But while these later generations would employ complicated song structures to showcase their stuff, all King needs is a serviceable backbeat to help you shake a leg. The lead and best track "Hide Away" boasts a deceptively simple sound achieved by a series of rolling guitar licks that bend the notes, coaxing them into one another. This may not be flashy music, but neither is it hard to like. Grade: B
