Guitar Man by J.J. Cale

Guitar Man

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Guitar Man

Features

Audio CD (June 25, 1996)

Original Release Date: 2000

Number of Discs: 1

Label: Virgin Records

Amazon.com
For a man who wrote such rock standards as "After Midnight," "Cocaine," "Call Me the Breeze," and "Magnolia," J.J. Cale maintains a surprisingly low profile. The Oklahoma singer/songwriter pioneered the fluid, laid-back, country-blues shuffles that provided aural blueprints for Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton, but not one of Cale's 12 albums has penetrated the top-40 charts. Guitar Man, Cale's 12th album, is his strongest in a long time for several reasons. He recorded it almost all by himself out in his California desert studio, and his imagination seems to have been stimulated by his experiments with drum machines, synthesizers, and sequencers. A bluesy rootsiness still dominates his sound, but around the edges is a new high-tech crispness that provides a welcome edge to his lazy drawl. --Geoffrey Himes

Reader Reviews
Among the sets of songs that JJ cale has put together in recent years, there is not one where he squeezes his creative prowess as he does on "Guitar Man". No bad eggs in this collection. Some songs fundamental for his point of view as artist: IF I Had a Rocket, Nobody Knows or the funny Doctor Told Me, are songs as important as Anyway the Wind Blows. There is also the enigmatic Guitar Man that gives the title: a funny mail exchange to some fellow guitar player? You can find in Miss Ol'St. Louie that delightful travelling mood of some of his songs, and all in all, this is another one of those records of imaginative variations of pure JJ Cale that we love so much. In Death in the Wilderness he shows concern about environmental issues, knowing, as anyone who has ever wondered where do we come from, that wilderness is a need, also for humans: "the rabbit, he'll be gone, the bird will sing no song, the wolf, the deer, the lion too" Just add: and the man too, and probably before some of them . We are wilderness too.

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