Slim Chance

Ronnie Lanes Slim Chance is a thing if rare beauty.. Its a crafty little album full of hope and jovial times. The mans spirit and enduring charm shines through each and every song, whether it be one of the covers or his own material.

This album evokes a summers evening with your best mates, loved ones and a barrel of the finest, all washed down with one of this countries greatest and most sadly missed treasures...three cheers for Ronnie!!!

After leaving the Faces,small or otherwise,I felt that Ronnies music justgot better, and was so from the heart.You can feel the country boy comingout of the speakers straight to your soul. This cd is a great buy as youget 2 albums on one disc,Ronnie Lanes Slim Chance and the album One ForThe Road. The first album is good old country rock, while the second givesthe feel of a long hot summer. Listeners will be able to identify with thesongs One For The Road,(after a good night out!) Steppin and Reelin (thewedding), try not to tap your feet or get up and dance! There are somebeautiful tracks on this album that will ring a tear to the eye.Ronniehas sadly now gone behind the sun,but thankfully his legacy is a lot ofgreat music captured on disc. If you only buy one of his albums,you cantgo wrong with this one. The little fella who inspired the likes of PaulWeller,Oasis,etc has done well!

As Van M once said, "Take me back, take me way, way back ...."

Back to 1975 !

[This followed on from the gloriously shambling but brilliant "Anymore For Anymore" - which didn't originally feature the bouncy hit single "How Come" (it does on the CD version as a bonus along with the other of the two songs on the B-side "Done This One Before"). It did however, include the wonderful "The Poacher" (another one that got away) in 1974.]

But, in 1975 this superb album came on to the market and what a pleasure it is to listen to from beginning to end. Once again, this is an album that I have never, ever tired of hearing. One thing I do remember from the original reviews was that though Ronnie had been ill, he was getting back to full recovery "having lived on Guinness and OTHER health foods" for a year !

Where the eponymous "Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance" succeeds even more than "Anymore For Anymore" is the addition of multi-instrumentalists, the late Ruin O'Lochlainn on piano, organ and soprano, alto and tenor saxes;
Steve Simpson on guitars, mandolin, violin and harmonica and Charlie Hart on piano, organ, accordion and violin.

Oh, and the material, some of it original and some covers from the 50's and 60's and even one from the 1930's !

There's a cover of "Stone", culled from the Faces' "First Step" album which originally, Rod Stewart got to sing. This goes into the lovely "Bottle Of Brandy" where Steve Simpson playing mandolin wrings the maximum emotion and pathos from both the lyric and melody of the song. This is followed by the wonderful instrumental "Street Gang" (written by Lane/Simpson/O'Lochlainn) and features some very melodic interplay by the latter on both alto and tenor saxes. Down under the mix though are both Lane and Simpson with electric guitars on this ... well, it's like a cross between Celtic and Cajun soul... !

Lane's compostion "Anniversary" is a simple 3 chord melody but, has a glorious two-pronged violin attack by Simpson and Hart (based loosely to my ear, upon the coda to Rod Stewart's "Italian Girls" from his 1972 "Never A Dull Moment"), particularly on the song's very own coda.

Then the listener gets a very good pastiche of the 1930's with "I'm Going To Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter", which has a wonderful soprano sax solo from O'Lochlainn and some rinkety-tinkety tink upright piano from Hart.

Side one concludes with "I'm Just A Country Boy" which has for me, a very heartfelt lyric ('I'm never gonna ask her to marry me - 'cause I know she'll turn me down') is a poor country boy singing about a love on the other side of the social tracks.

(The original) Side two opens up with an acoustic 12-bar Cajun blues "Ain't No Lady" which is almost a typically dirty-ditty (a la "You're So Rude") from Lane which benefits from both accordion and violin from Hart and Simpson and a great finale from Lane where he sings 'I'll put a quarter in the meter and use my little heater'- (don't know what he means there I'm sure!). This is followed by a great cover of Fats Domino's "Blue Monday", another Lane composition, "Give Me A Penny"; then the tour de force, the best ever recorded version of Chuck Berry's "You Never Can Tell" which once again is done with an infectious Cajun rhythm and I have no doubt that, your foot will start tapping along. Once again, right under the mix, there's Simpson playing some very effective electric guitar. Never flash mind! It even improves on Chuck's original and leaves Emmylou's in the shade.

The album's penultimate track is his own "Tin And Tambourine" (which has a similar melodic structure to his own "Devotion" - again from "First Steps") featuring Simpson playing some really plaintive harmonica and then ends with the Roy Rogers singing cowboy style "Single Saddle, which features the versatile Simpson again on mandolin.

I have had this album now, for over 30 years and recently picked out on You Tube a posting from an OGWT in 1975 which features the band doing "You Never Can Tell" and "Anniversary". If you don't take this review as proof, go to this clip and see the absolute joy on the faces of this band playing these tunes.

Lane always wrote seemingly very simple songs, nearly always with a very good hook and it's interesting isn't it that, after splitting with Marriott, Lane had the most success, didn't he?

I saw Slim Chance at the Student Union at The University of Leeds and this was probably the best and most enjoyable gig I've ever seen, proving that you do not have to give your eardrums a pasting to enjoy great music!

Ronnie Lane died much too young and I will always have a place in my heart for what he did, whether it was the Small Faces, Faces or Slim Chance. He did it with shambling aplomb, honesty and integrity. Bless his cotton socks !

A 5 star album - and I do not give these out lightly!

Highly recommended. Enjoy someone at the top of his game enjoying what he does best !

PS .... this album can also be purchased/featured doubled up with his 1976 album "One For The Road" and in this instance does not include the final track "Single Saddle", but all of "One For The Road".

"One For The Road" is not in the same league as this but, does feature "Don't Try And Change My Mind" and the superb autobiographical wedding song, "Steppin' 'n' Reelin' (The Wedding)".