[Slowhand] Road to Escondido

[Art Arias]

   Last night I was invited thru EC Access to an
advance listening preview of the soon to be released
J.J. Cale & Eric Clapton "Road To Escondido" CD here
in Los Angeles. It was set up in a comfortable lounge
setting located within the Warner Bros/Reprise Records
building with my guest and about two dozen other
attendees.  It was explained that Eric had asked Cale
to produce a CD for him that turned into a
collaboration with both playing and singing throughout
along with a few guests like Taj Mahal, John Mayer,
Albert Lee and members of his current band featuring
Doyle Brambell II, Derek Trucks, Willie Weeks, Steve
Jordan and one of that last contributions by the late
Billy Preston, whom this CD is dedicated to along with
Clapton's late friend Brian Roylance. The CD, to be
released on Nov. 7, has 14 tracks and is a mix of
rock, blues, country & folk tunes, some reminiscent of
the 70's Tulsa sound. The track listing is as follows:

1.  Danger
2.  Heads In Georgia
3.  Missing Person
4.  When This War Is Over
5.  Sporting Life Blues
6.  Dead End Road
7.  It's Easy
8.  Hard To Thrill
9.  Anyway The Wind Blows
10. Three Little Girls
11. Don't Cry Sister
12. Last Will And Testament
13. Who Am I Telling
14. Ride The River

We were told that 'Ride The River' will probably be
the first single and as it is an upbeat tempo song
with a very nice wah-wah guitar solo to fade it out.
The choice was either that or 'Danger', which alot of
the group preferred over the previous. 'Danger' starts
off the set with Cale on vocals with what I thought
was the best guitar solo on the CD by EC. Of the 14
tracks, 11 were written by Cale, 1 by Clapton (Three
Little Girls), 1 by John Mayer (Hard To Thrill) and
the last an old blues standard from Brownie McGee
(Sporting Life Blues). 'Dead End Road' is a nice
skiffle tune with an outstanding solo undoubtedly by
Albert Lee and Clapton's 'Three Little Girls' is an
acoustic tribute to his daughters that he names in a
verse and could have fit easily on the Back Home CD.
Throughout most of all songs Clapton & Cale share
vocal duties with EC's voice very subdued and mellow
that it seems he's imitating Cales vocals and at times
it's hard to pick out who really is singing. Gone is
Claptons growl you hear when he sings loudly as they
share vocal duties on all songs with the exception of
the one EC penned. 'Sporting Life Blues' is the only
cover but John Mayers 'Hard To Tell' is the other
blues tune here and one of my personal favorites on
this set. 'Last Will And Testament' was another
favorite of mine here and along with 'Don't Cry
Sister', I thought these had a Dylan feel to them. A
lot of different kinds of musical styles goes into
most of these songs and with J.J. Cale having written
most of them it sounds more like his kind of recording
than Claptons, but that isn't a bad thing. I actually
would program half of these songs for my personal
preference but everybody present had their own
favorites so there's something here for everyone.
Don't expect alot of EC solos as what I could tell
they are spread out pretty evenly to all guitarists on
these sessions.  Derek Trucks adds a couple of tasty
slide guitar solos on 'When The War Is Over' and 'Who
Am I Telling'. Of course when the CD credits come out
and it says who's playing on what I'll probably be
wrong so it's just my guess for now. Overall, what I
heard last night was a pretty good CD and if your a
J.J. Cale fan I know you'll enjoy it. It is produced
by Eric Clapton & J.J. Cale and co-produced by Simon
Climie, so it does have that very polished sound to
it.
EC Access will be having future listening parties in
these areas soon:

Listening Party's TBA
9/16 - St. Paul, MN
9/20 - Chicago, IL
9/29 - New York, NY
10/3 - Boston, MA
10/6 - Uncasville, CT
10/14 - Duluth, GA
10/20 - Orlando, FL


  So if your a member and reply to the email they send
you, it could mean you too can have a listen and let
us know what you heard.

                                  Art Arias

P.S.  Welcome back, Almoody One

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