Tuesday, November 15, 2005:

J.J. Cale -- Don't Go to Strangers

J.J. Cale -- Don't Go to Strangers
"Don't Go to Strangers," (like "Call the Doctor," immediately before it on the album) has a sleepy feel to it, part Tom Waits and part Leonard Cohen: dusty dirt roads, sleeping yellow dogs, mossy oak trees splintered and falling apart, dull grey inside, turning to dry rot.

The tracks are content to ride out a groove in lieu of something more flashy; it's music that is, above all, content, self-confident, unassuming, in no hurry to impress.

The track is off J.J. Cale's Naturally, which had his version of "After Midnight," after Clapton made it famous (Cale also wrote "Cocaine," another track Clapton covered to great success). I like all the tracks on it (even "Call Me the Breeze," though I have an intense revulsion to all things Skynyrd and Skynyrd-related). Some of them are more dynamic than this one--"Woman I Love," for instance, has an infectious piano stomp and a horn section, and proved sorely tempting for a post.

...

I have one volunteer so far for the mix and guest review, possibly two (one person is willing to do it if time permits). I'd love to have another reviewer; if you're interested, let me know and I can get you a copy of the CD this week. With any luck the posts from it will be ready for late December/early January, when I'm expecting to be away a bit.

update: 2005 11 16: I've got enough volunteers now, thanks everyone! I'll probably do more in future; I'll let you know when the next one is up.

...

I'm still typing one-handed. The right angle cut into my finger has smoothed into an indentation and is no longer deep enough to fit the low E from a steel-stringed acoustic guitar (something a curious person might try once and once only, due to the pain of it).
[J.J. Cale -- Naturally @ amazon.com]
Naturally writeup @ allmusic.com

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Comments:
Want kind of stuff are you putting on the CD? I'd be happy to review/do a write up, if you'd like...

Funny you should ask; I was just thinking about how the CD has more current/indie rock than I tend to put up here.

The tracklist is bluegrass, blues, alt-country, rock, rock, rock, hard rock, punk, alt-country, hip-hop, hip-hop, pop, hard rock, folk. Um. And all of it fairly recent ( <10 years).

If it's not your cuppa, that's okay. I know it wouldn't fit on Soul Shower, though some of it might fit in on It's Magic.

i may be interested in doing it your mix review thing...although i don't know exactly what it entails.

i saw stg mention something about it on their blog this morning, and i'm always up for a free CD, ha.

maybe i can be directed towards some more infor. on this?

Jerimee, you're right. Seems I never explained it all in one place; there are just scattered references to it in three or four different posts. ^_^

What I was hoping for was to send out mix CDs to guest reviewers to get a broader range of opinions than I usually have. I'd post two or three of the tracks from the CD each post, with comments from the guest reviewers and a few comments by me, links to the bands' sites and where to get the CD, etc.

It's an idea I first saw on Tofu Hut, and I liked how people tended to write about the same music in different ways.

email me your address if you're still interested and I'll send out a copy. :-)

Tuwa, really liked the tune. Nice.
Had never heard Cale himself--just through others like Clapton and Santana (who covered "The Sensitive Kind").

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