In the early 1980s, prog rock guitarist Robert Fripp routinely railed against the evils of bootlegging, not for monetary or proprietary reasons but because in his mind, live recordings rarely do what they implicitly aspire to do. They document the band’s live performance but not the way it struck an audience. They don’t have the same impact because the listener isn’t in the same place among the same people with the same amount of beer in him/her feeling the excitement of being in the hall for his/her favorite band. The performance may be preserved, but it’s less impressive when heard out of its moment. I experienced what Fripp was talking about when I heard a tape of a Flamin’ Groovies show that I remembered fondly, only to discover maddening tuning efforts between songs that my memory and beer-driven excitement edited out. The tape wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the thrill- a-minute set I remembered.

Live at Three Muses brings these thoughts to mind. The album is a representative sampler of the music offered in the Frenchmen Street venue, but hearing these tracks by Glen David Andrews, the Palmetto Bug Stompers, Luke Winslow-King, the Hot Club of New Orleans and more at home is a very different experience from being in a cool club with good food and the musicians 10 to 15 feet away. Without the intimate experience that the club offers, the songs are fine and likeable, but rarely more.

Still, the album’s a solid calling card for Three Muses and articulates a clear, coherent aesthetic. The influence of gypsy jazz is very much in evidence, and everybody swings, largely on acoustic instruments. Live at Three Muses makes a stronger case for the venue as a valuable addition to the Frenchmen Street scene than it does for the artists on it.