The Album Review Club - Week #141 - (page 1860) - JPEG Raw - Gary Clark Jr.

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

I love Scenes from the Southside - he was ahead of the curve with "Look Out Any Window" - an eco-themed song way before most people were even thinking about such things; the piano outro on the superb "The Road Not Taken" was a sign of the direction that he was going in; and it was good to hear a different version of his own song, "Jacob's Ladder" that Huey Lewis had had a number 1 with the year before.

I remember those tracks, and it's been awhile since I listened to that album, but I did like it at the time too. Maybe I will give it another spin this week.

Geographically, I've always been surprised that Virginia is considered the South - it seems a bit to far north in the grand scheme of things.

I can assure you it is. Richmond was the capitol of the Confederacy, and famous generals Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and others were from there. There's battlefields all over that state from the Civil War.

I will agree that Northern Virginia (NoVA) is different from other parts of the state further south, but that is probably a discussion for another forum.

As I'm sure you know, Hornsby is from the Colonial Williamsburg area, which tends to focus tourists on a period of about 100 years prior to then. ;-)

I think the music my Mum and Dad listened to might have influenced my musical direction - as I've noted before, all that "new" music in the 80s didn't seem much like music to me, so I buried my head in sport, books and films. When I was ready to listen to music, it was the kind of stuff that flowed from rock and roll, country, blues and folk - you know, proper music! Bruce Hornsby ticks most of these boxes and so do a lot of (y)our fellow countrymen.

Totally understand, and there's enough overlaps from my end as well. Cheers!

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

This was a really good watch.
Highly recommended for Pop fanatics on here. Loved every minute.

I have an appreciation of all the artists they gathered for that, even if I'm not an active fan of all of them.

I was mostly a big fan of Springsteen, Joel, and Dylan at the time, enjoyed Huey Lewis and Cindi Lauper, and how they got Bruce finishing a tour in Buffalo (EST) out there for that in PST for an all nighter and more was something I never knew.

The logistics to put something like that together was pretty fascinating to me, with all the media leaks, etc. going on behind the AMA that Richie hosted that night. The focus on how the song was written and how the artists were gathered and those that took the footage was amazing.

Bob Geldof's addressing the artists was powerful, and the line from Paul Simon that “if a bomb lands on this place, John Denver's back on top” had me rolling with laughter.

I always wondered what the heck Dan Ackroyd was doing there too (singing?), and the impact on Diana Ross at the end was apparent. Big props to Producer Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie in pulling it off.

 

[RobMCFC]

One listen into the shorter version, initial thoughts:

1. Clearly knows what he's doing.
2. Preferring the upbeat to the power ballads.
3. Wish he'd spent some of his formative years in the the swamplands of Alabama or Louisiana because some of this is really good but it's too clean/bright to really strike home for me. Every now and then I thought ffs man, just growl a bit.

Fair point about the voice. It's something that I've never thought about, but then again if he was growling like Dr. John, he might be accused of simply aping a style.

Something that I forgot to mention in my write-up (I was trying to keep it short enough for everybody not to get bored) - some of the tracks for disk #1 were recorded at Daniel Lanois' Kingsway Studios in New Orleans. Regular readers will know that this is hallowed ground for me as the recording location of Chris Whitley's Living With The Law.

So I'm sure Bruce soaked himself in that bayou atmosphere even if he didn't come out growling :)

 

[threespires]

Fair point about the voice. It's something that I've never thought about, but then again if he was growling like Dr. John, he might be accused of simply aping a style.

Something that I forgot to mention in my write-up (I was trying to keep it short enough for everybody not to get bored) - some of the tracks for disk #1 were recorded at Daniel Lanois' Kingsway Studios in New Orleans. Regular readers will know that this is hallowed ground for me as the recording location of Chris Whitley's Living With The Law.

So I'm sure Bruce soaked himself in that bayou atmosphere even if he didn't come out growling :)

Ah that explains some things :-) I do think we have some musical overlaps but one thing we are never going to agree on is Daniel Lanois!

Because I'm a saddo, i've just googled mapped from Kingsway to Dockside Studios and it's only 151miles. If someone had just kidnapped him and driven him there I'd be 100% on board with this pick ;-)

 

[RobMCFC]

Ah that explains some things :-) I do think we have some musical overlaps but one thing we are never going to agree on is Daniel Lanois!

Because I'm a saddo, i've just googled mapped from Kingsway to Dockside Studios and it's only 151miles. If someone had just kidnapped him and driven him there I'd be 100% on board with this pick ;-)

I don't think Daniel Lanois had anything to do with this album, they just used his studio.

I would say that this is the opposite of a Lanois production - here the instruments are well separated in the mix whereas Lanois likes them to sound a little hazy - e.g. Robbie Robertson's 1987 album.

 

[BlueHammer85]

 

[threespires]

I don't think Daniel Lanois had anything to do with this album, they just used his studio.

I would say that this is the opposite of a Lanois production - here the instruments are well separated in the mix whereas Lanois likes them to sound a little hazy - e.g. Robbie Robertson's 1987 album.

Yeah, I was just being a bit facetious. Interesting you use the term hazy for him, my cartoonish dislike of him is based 33% on the way he records drums and 33% on his general use of reverb for the whole 'shimmering' thing, so hazy is something I could cope with - I might have a listen to the Robbie Robertson to see if that rehabilitates him in my mind.

Aside: Your reference to Garcia as a collaborator made me think about the fact we don't really discuss the Grateful Dead much on these pages do we?

 

[RobMCFC]

Yeah, I was just being a bit facetious. Interesting you use the term hazy for him, my cartoonish dislike of him is based 33% on the way he records drums and 33% on his general use of reverb for the whole 'shimmering' thing, so hazy is something I could cope with - I might have a listen to the Robbie Robertson to see if that rehabilitates him in my mind.

Aside: Your reference to Garcia as a collaborator made me think about the fact we don't really discuss the Grateful Dead much on these pages do we?

I don't know much about them but I know Foggy's wife's a big fan.

 

[RobMCFC]

I actually watched this at the weekend.

It's a good summary of his career but I couldn't figure out who made it or why! It seems to be narrated by some Cornish bloke and it doesn't have any interviews with anybody. A real curates egg.

 

[threespires]

This was a really good watch.
Highly recommended for Pop fanatics on here. Loved every minute.

Yes indeed, thanks to @Black&White&BlueMoon Town for highlighting it. It's absolutely brilliant, chock full of interesting and entertaining stuff. From Kenny Loggins totally guileless admission that he'd barely heard of Africa but that if Jackson was doing it then it would be a hit so why not; through to Dylan's vulnerability and Stevie Wonders brilliant approach to helping him work out how to sing his part.; through to Waylon Jennings being..well Waylon Jennings. My personal favourite bit were Springsteen's contributions, when smooth Lionel bigged it up as one of the greatest songs ever written they cut to Springsteen offering his brilliantly diplomatic but entirely transparent view of the song!

Won't spoil it further for people who are going to watch but as far as documentaries of it's type go it was definitely in the all killer no filler category for me.