J. J. Cale *December 5, 1938 

Song Review: Widespread Panic - “Travelin’ Light” (Live, June 23, 2023)

Though it’s been in the repertoire since the band began more than 35 years ago, “Travelin’ Light” is not a song that Widespread Panic has tired of playing.

The evidence is there in a powerful rendition of the J.J. Cale composition culled from Panic’s June 23 livestream from Red Rocks and released as a standalone. The band puts everything in to the track, with John Bell singing with the same fire he possessed in 1988 and Dave Schools continuing to find new ways to make the bass guitar more than just a rhythm instrument.

The rest of the Panics weren’t yet on board when the original group formed. But that doesn’t mean they haven’t played “Travelin’ Light” something like a gazillion times themselves. Still, one would never know it by the exuberance that goes in to nearly every reading of the heavy number.

Grade card: Widespread Panic - “Travelin’ Light” (Live - 6/23/23) - B+

11/14/23

354: Leon Russell // Hank Wilson's Back, Vol. I

Hank Wilson's Back, Vol. I Leon Russell 1973, Shelter

Leon Russell’s Hank Wilson’s Back Vol. I ends with a sudden burst of hysterical laughter, which is usually what I feel Leon’s doing at my expense when I listen to his records, but Hank is a pretty straight affair. We’re looking at 13 classic bluegrass and country standards, most such obvious choices that it would be a real challenge to record one of the thousand best versions of a given song, let alone a newly definitive one. None of these are that, but the record’s a breezy listen. Russell was a prolific session player before his songwriting career took off, and he puts together an all-star crew of sidemen, including J.J. Cale, Billy Byrd, and members of the Wrecking Crew, Nashville Cats, and Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. (Plus a sleeve design by Eve Babitz!) This’ll shock, but they sound pretty good.

The more reverent arrangements (mostly on side one) are nice but not necessarily thrilling. When Russell and company give a swampier Tulsa Sound read though, you’re in for a ball. The credits to his rollicking take on Jimmie Driftwood’s “The Battle of New Orleans” list no less than six guitar players, and you can hear all of them putting in work: crunching riffs, high sitar-like accents, even a spacy steel guitar bridge. We get a nice take on Leon Payne’s “Lost Highway” too, Russell singing like he’s got a wad of chew stuffed in his cheek, the whole track bobbing along like R. Crumb’s “Keep on Truckin’” guy. Russell’s not bad on the ballads either: there’s a splendid version of “Am I That Easy to Forget” that compares well to Gram Parsons’ work from the same year on Grievous Angel.

If I were rating the record, I’d say side one is a respectable 3/5, and side two a strong 4/5—so split the difference and call it a 3.5, well worth a grab for fans of great country-western musicianship and appreciators of the ‘70s Russell/Cale/Clapton sound.

354/365

ALBUM COVER SPECIAL: IN THE CAN

Sadly, Can The Can doesn’t get a guernsey. Still, there are a number of other LPs that deploy the humble tin can on their covers. Here is a selection. * The debut from Britain’s blues outfit came out in 1968 and reached #12 on the UK albums chart. The band were formed by Stan Webb but are mostly remembered for presenting the earliest recordings of Christine Perfect (later to marry John McVie and…

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“Call Me The Breeze”

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s version of the J.J. Cale song from their sophomore album Second Helping.

Play ▶ J.J. Cale Featuring Leon Russell - In Session At The Paradise Studios - Los Angeles, 1979

Track List T-Bone Shuffle Nowhere To Run Cocaine Ten Easy Lessons Sensitive Kind Hands Off Her Lou-Easy-Ann Going Down Corine Corina Roll On No Sweat Crazy Mama Fate Of A Fool Boilin' Pot After Midnight T-Bone Shuffle T-Bone Backwards Same Old Blues Don't Cry Sister Set Your Soul Free (Tell Me Who You Care) 24 Hours A Day Ten Easy Lessons

For the Spotify Wrapped ask meme: 48

Sensitive Kind

J.J. Cale

R.I.P. 26.07.2013

new lover by jj cale

J. J. Cale † July 26, 2013

Book Review - Leon Russell: “The Master of Space and Time’s Journey through Rock & Roll History” by Bill Janovitz

Leon Russell’s career was long and varied enough as to require a considerable number of words to tell its story.

But even when writing about the man born Russell Bridges, a guy whose career spanned the 1950s as a member of Jerry Lee Lewis’ band to 2016 as a legacy act enshrined in the Rock and Roll and Songwriters halls of fame, 592 pages are too many.

Yet, that’s the number Bill Janovitz settled on for his biography, “Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time’s Journey through Rock & Roll History.” On the one hand, Janovitz takes care to ensure the reader comes away knowing everything necessary to understand the contours of Russell’s extraordinary life and career; on the other, he’s not above going into minute detail about what the musician is wearing in a grainy YouTube video shot in Europe in the 1970s. It’s at moments like this - and there are many - that the book drags.

Still, it’s a riveting tale, as the Tulsa, Okla.,-born Russell heads West, makes his first studio appearance on the 1962 recording of “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,” becomes a member of the Wrecking Crew and goes on to discover J.J. Cale, Tom Petty and even actor Gary Busey, who served as Russell’s drummer for a spell in the 1970s. And the chapters on Delaney & Bonnie, Mad Dogs & Englishmen, George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh and Russell’s long-standing collaboration with New Grass Revival could be standalone books themselves.

Janovitz tells the story/ies both through detailed research and with the help of Russell’s cooperative family members and musical colleagues - Eric Clapton, Sam Bush, Rita Coolidge, Willie Nelson, Jim Keltner and Derek Trucks among them.

Russell began his emergence in 1970 when, as Joe Cocker was balking at a tour to which he was contractually obligated, Russell put together Mad Dogs for a two-month extravaganza that changed the lives of everyone involved and led to lifelong friction between Russell and Cocker, who believed the former had used the latter to advance his own career.

Regardless of whether that is true - and Russell maintained it was not and professed to be hurt by Cocker’s feelings - Russell did go on to become one of the biggest concert draws and record producers of the early 1970s. Russell was also ahead of his time in realizing video would become a prime medium for promoting music. And while his many ventures in that area failed, his prescience dovetails with his visionary status in the early part of his career.

Russell - who fiends and family suspect was both bipolar and on the autism spectrum - remained busy, but at a low ebb commercially, in his later years. He made and released albums on his eponymous label and toured incessantly, playing to small audiences in clubs to keep the mortgages paid and the lights burning.

Russell is at his nadir when his former opening act and acolyte Elton John returns to Russell’s orbit in 2010. John and Russell cut the Union; Russell gets his aforementioned hall of fame honors; reunites with many members of Mad Dogs under the auspices of Tedeschi Trucks Band at Viriginia’s Lockn’ festival in 2015; and enjoys a career resurgence before death comes in 2016. Alas, Russell and Cocker never reconciled.

In the end, Janovitz’s Russell biography is a sort of music-lover’s textbook. For despite the sometimes-excruciating level of detail, the information within is essential to understanding rock ‘n’ roll as we know it.

Grade card: Leon Russell: “The Master of Space and Time’s Journey through Rock & Roll History” by Bill Janovitz - B

3/7/24

J.J. Cale >>>> Durango 

1960s promotional poster for blues singer and guitarist Albert Collins for his performance at the ‘Fresh Air Tavern’ (venue that featured other artists ranging from Chico Hamilton, John Lee Hooker, J.J. Cale, Gabor Szabor, Muddy Waters, and Billy Joel) in Seattle on 1509 Broadway Street in Capital Hill.

This tavern was later remolded into a video game emporium, and a now defunct gay bar that was known by the name of ‘Neighbors.’ The only surviving forms of history are through promotional posters of the various artists, and concerts that were held, as well as an antidote shared by Billy Joel at his concert in ‘Safeco Field’ on May 20, 2016:

”I first played here back in the early seventies [specifically 1971]. It was a little pub called the ‘Fresh Air Tavern’ and it was a dump. Wasn’t anything like this at all.”

Additional history of the tavern is linked below with a facebook post of both the history and facebook group.

J.J. Cale _ Bringing It Back ( To Tulsa and Back - On Tour )