Guitar Man (J. J. Cale album)

Last updated
Guitar Man
Guitar Man cover.jpg
Studio album by
J. J. Cale
ReleasedJune 25, 1996
Genre Blues, Americana, Tulsa Sound
Length38:13
Label – CD: Delabel (promo edition: DE 3687)/Virgin (7243 8 41480 2 7) (1996) / Virgin (CDVIR 48) (2011); [1]
– Digital Download: Virgin / Parlophone (#0724384148058) [2]
J. J. Cale chronology
Closer to You
(1994)		Guitar Man
(1996)		 To Tulsa and Back
(2004)

Guitar Man is the 12th studio album by J. J. Cale, released in 1996.

J. J. Cale American singer-songwriter and musician

John Weldon "J. J." Cale was an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Though he avoided the limelight, his influence as a musical artist has been widely acknowledged by figures such as Mark Knopfler, Neil Young and Eric Clapton, who described him as "one of the most important artists in the history of rock". He is considered to be one of the originators of the Tulsa Sound, a loose genre drawing on blues, rockabilly, country, and jazz.

Contents

Recording

After taking a six-year break from the music business, Cale recorded four albums in the same amount of time in the early 90s. Ironically, in an era of grunge and the MTV Unplugged trends, Cale became immersed in electronics and synthesizers. “I did the unplugged, live kind of thing in the ‘70’s and the ‘80’s,” he told one interviewer. “I’ve gone to the other direction now that all that’s become popular. Been there done that! They didn’t call it unplugged in those days but that is what it was…There is a fascination about electronics…It is an art form in itself.” [3]

Grunge is a rock music genre and subculture that emerged during the mid-1980s in the Pacific Northwest U.S. state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. The early grunge movement revolved around Seattle's independent record label Sub Pop and the region's underground music scene. The owners of Sub Pop marketed Northwestern punk rock shrewdly and the media was encouraged to describe it as "grunge", which came to mean a punk and metal hybrid style of music. By the early 1990s its popularity had spread, with grunge bands appearing in California, then emerging in other parts of the United States and in Australia, building strong followings and signing major record deals.

Recording

Produced by Cale, Guitar Man differs from the albums he made in the seventies and early eighties in that while those records featured numerous top self session players, Cale provided the instrumentation on Guitar Man himself, augmented by wife Christine Lakeland on guitar and background vocals and drummer James Cruce on the opener “Death in the Wilderness.” In his AllMusic review of the LP, Thom Owens writes, “Although he has recorded Guitar Man as a one-man band effort, it sounds remarkably relaxed and laid-back, like it was made with a seasoned bar band.” In assessing the album, rock writer Brian Wise of Rhythm Magazine commented, “‘Lowdown’ is typical Cale shuffle, ‘Days Go By’ gives a jazzy feel to a song about smoking a certain substance while the traditional ‘Old Blue’ reprises a song that many might first have heard with The Byrds version during the Gram Parsons era.” [4] The traditional song “Old Blue” long fascinated Cale, who reflected, “I have heard that song all my life, it’s an old folk song. I didn’t get quite the way the original went. I’ve changed some of the lyrics to fit my style. I like the song. I’m a big dog lover and animal lover. I have heard the song off and on in my subconscious for years.” [5] On the ecologically-minded “Wilderness,” Cale deems the planet “a hopeless case, I guess,” and surmises “We'll mow it down, we'll rape the ground 'til there's nothing left to abuse.”

Christine Lakeland is an American musician/songwriter. She was married to the late guitarist/songwriter J.J. Cale. She played on many of his albums and was a member of his band. She also has recorded several albums under her own name.

AllMusic Online music database

AllMusic is an online music database. It catalogs more than 3 million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musical artists and bands. It launched in 1991, predating the World Wide Web. As of 2015, AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne.

The Byrds American rock band

The Byrds were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member. Although they only managed to attain the huge commercial success of contemporaries like the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Rolling Stones for a short period in the mid-1960s, the Byrds are today considered by critics to be nearly as influential as those bands. Their signature blend of clear harmony singing and McGuinn's jangly twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar was "absorbed into the vocabulary of rock" and has continued to be influential.

After Guitar Man, Cale would not release another album for eight years.

Reception

AllMusic: “There's a handful of very good songs, but there's nothing on the level of his previous classics. It's just another pleasant J.J. Cale album, nothing more but nothing less, either.”

Track listing

All songs written by J. J. Cale, except where indicated.

  1. "Death in the Wilderness" 4:58
  2. "It's Hard to Tell" 2:40
  3. "Days Go By" 3:27
  4. "Low Down" 2:48
  5. "This Town" 2:54
  6. "Guitar Man" 4:02
  7. "If I Had a Rocket" 3:02
  8. "Perfect Woman" 2:10
  9. "Old Blue" - Traditional 2:42
  10. "Doctor Told Me" 3:12
  11. "Miss Ol' St Louie" 2:33
  12. "Nobody Knows" 3:51

Personnel

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References

  1. ↑ "J.J. Cale – Guitar Man". discogs.com. April 2018. Retrieved 29 April 2018.
  2. ↑ "J.J. Cale – Guitar Man". allmusic.com. April 2018. Retrieved 29 April 2018.
  3. ↑ Wise, Brian (July 28, 2013). "Tribute – J.J. Cale in 1996". Addicted to Noise. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  4. ↑ Wise, Brian (July 28, 2013). "Tribute – J.J. Cale in 1996". Addicted to Noise. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  5. ↑ Wise, Brian (July 28, 2013). "Tribute – J.J. Cale in 1996". Addicted to Noise. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
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