Slicer has been enjoying the blues of late - listening and having a go at playing too. He had great fun recently at a medics reunion jamming with some mates during the drinks reception. Thanks guys (and gals who asked us to do it), for a great night - you know who you are! Mustang Sally was a high point. If only it hadn't been such a dressed-up affair, Slicer would have worn his favourite ever T-shirt - it had a vehicular theme, but was a bit too road-worn for the event.
The night after the reunion, Slicer got playing with another bunch of talented folk - and on the same bill as American acoustic blues artist Brooks Williams. Thanks to all who made that happen - you know who you are too! Both nights will remain fondly in his memory for a long time to come. He recently became aware of a new blues-themed blog, which looks likely to feed his hunger for more info and artists in this genre.
In the meantime, he ordered up Revelator, by the Tedeschi Trucks Band. There's plenty of shredding going on here, and a shredder's gotta be close to a Slicer's heart... (eughh! :-P)
To Slicer, the name of this 2011 album meant more than the name of the band. "John the Revelator" is an old, and influential, blues standard made popular by Blind Willie Johnson, and later by many others, including Son House, the Blues Brothers, REM, The White Stripes and Nick Cave. Click here for the Blues Brothers version. John the Revelator is, of course, the writer associated with the Book of Revelation. However, on this album, it's not clear that there is any intended reference to that individual, tho' it shares the musical heritage.
Derek Trucks has a close connection with the Allman Bros (they of Jessica, theme tune of Top Gear), and has led a number of outfits in the past which have majored more on live performance than on recording. He is an outstanding slide guitarist, and his talent was evident from an early age. You will be astounded by the soul and emotion of his playing at 13:
The Derek Trucks Band have made several discs, and picked up a Grammy Award for their 2009 album "Already Free." Trucks has also collaborated before with independently successful singer and guitarist Susan Tedeschi (his wife), in Soul Stew Revival, and this has now evolved into the Tedeschi Trucks Band.
They've shared the stage with Clapton, BB King and Herbie Hancock. Here's an example of them applying themselves to Hancock's Space Captain, with the man himself on the ivories:
So, back to the task in hand - here are Slicer's impressions of Revelator, track by track:
1. Come See About Me. A summons to a lover to hurry back. Starts with a great little syncopated drum motif, soon joined by acoustic slide, and then bass and electric slide. Slicer was immediately struck by how close Tedeschi is in vocal style and tone to Bonnie Raitt.
2. Don’t Let Me Slide. Self-explanatory. Appropriately, this one features tasty slide guitar (as do all the other songs!).
“You make me want to wake up in the morning
You make me want to be the best I can
Always searching but never finding
Until you took me by the hand....
...You can’t blame me, Lord, for trying
To hide behind the fool that I am
You know I’ve never been afraid of flying
Just never knew how to land”
3. Midnight in Harlem. A melancholic song, apparently reminiscing over a love lost. Features Wurlitzer and Hammond Organ.
4. Bound for Glory. Confident hope.
“Tell your story, roll the truth around your head
Bound for glory...
...Yesterday’s dead and gone
And I feel that I’m bound for glory
...Can you feel it?
Bound for glory”
5. Simple Things. The gentle style of the song could fool you into missing the fact that in it there’s quite a challenge to move beyond selfish interests.
“When you look into the mirror
Are you proud of what you see?
Do you take it all for granted?
Do you have all that you need?
...I’ve been taking more than I’ve been giving
...Simple things make it all worth living
Looking for life without sorrow
Love without pain
So you’ve built these walls around you
To protect all that you own...”
6. Until You Remember. Arpeggio with a few extra frills. Great tremolo sound on the guitar. It’s in this song that Susan starts to let go of her reserved style... and starts to soar... beginning to sound at one point not unlike Janis Joplin...
“Every night I pray
That you’ll come back today
And hold me like you used to do
Every night I spent
Just waiting on your scent
Needing just at trace of you
Well, I know it ain’t refined
But I’ll hold your place in line
Until you remember that you’re mine.
...And it’s nothing that I planned
To let you slip right through my hands.”
7. Ball and Chain. Contentment in the present, ready to face what might be thrown. Slicer reads this as sharing the same notion as We Shall Not Be Moved...
“I’m so lucky my pride and joy
Is my Ball and Chain
And they’re one and the same.”
8. These Walls. A song of hardship and persistent longing, after a woman is abandoned by her man. Features Sarod, a fretless relative of the Sitar.
“She loved him like a lady
Never did her too well.
She prays, ‘Oh Lord
Don’t let these walls fall down.’”
9. Learn How to Love. Great, gritty, thick and heavy blues – for a second time Tedeschi starts to let rip.
“Can I learn how to give?
Can I throw down these chains
And find a new way to live?
I know it won’t be easy
All I need is a friend
And with you here by my side
I’m ready to start again
...I’m gonna learn how to love you”
10. Shrimp and Grits. An instrumental interlude. Funky - 2 guitars, one with Wahwah, bass n' drums
11. Love Has Something Else To Say. More funk, with brass. Dr John would be right at home here. Yet... at times the guitar is Santana-esque.
“I know you know right from wrong
It don’t change a thing...
I know it’s hard to do right
When you want to do wrong”
12. Shelter. A song of appreciation to someone who’s stuck around in times of trouble, when fair-weather friends were nowhere to be seen. A song similar in sentiment to “You’ve Got a Friend” & “Bridge over troubled water,” albeit a less twee, gentle blues alternative.
“I’ll be your answer when you call...
You showed me that your actions
Speak louder than your words.”
The song finishes and, after a brief silence, comes Ghost Light to finish the album. It has no place-marker so if you want to go there, you have to fast forward through Track 12 – like you used to have to do with tape.
Speaking of that medium, it’s no wonder there’s a creamy warmth to the sound. As if Gibson guitars, valve amplifiers etc weren’t enough to generate that, the entire album – although recorded digitally - was subsequently mixed to (presumably analogue) tape to warm up the midrange, producing a sound that recalls great recordings of the 1960s. Credits even include Eve Anna Manley of Manley Labs! She is well known to valve hi-fi afficionados such as Slicer, as well as making thermionic gear for the professional market.
Whilst Tedeschi and Trucks wrote the numbers, and are clearly to the fore in the mix, this outfit certainly lives up to the title of Band - the cover features a further 9 instrumentalists.
If Slicer has any minor negative criticism of this album, it’s that occasionally he’d prefer a little more edge to Tedeschi’s singing – a criticism he would sometimes level at Bonnie Raitt too. It’s perhaps just a bit too creamy and mellow in quite a few songs – you feel that she wraps you in cotton wool, or a duvet... However, that may well be the attraction for others. She even sings in Bound for Glory “I ain’t getting out of this bed.”
Regardless, this is a worthy album. A keeper.
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