Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A lotta more wonderful Americana than you might think!, 2 Oct 2006
A while ago, I ordered this Bobby Charles album from the Amazon.co.uk website and was delighted at the first listening.
In the first place, I would like to bring out the good news to prospective buyers : please note that this cardboard lined 2-CD set includes a total of 34 (THIRTY-FOUR) tracks, NOT 15 (FIFTEEN) as indicated on the Amazon track list.
The fifteen tracks actually listed by Amazon are the "new" (that is: previously unreleased) tracks featured on CD 1.
There is, however, a "bonus" CD 2 including 19 (NINETEEN) tracks previously released on two Stony Plain CDs. It would take too much place to list them all. As my own copy is the US one released on the Rice 'n' Gravy/Bogalusa label, I checked out the Proper Records UK website to make certain that the track listing is the same on both the US and UK releases.
The booklet includes, for each track, complete credits regarding recording studios, engineers, producers and individual musicians. The recording dates are also indicated for the tracks on CD 1.
The sequencing is not chronological and the material on both CD's criss-crosses the years randomly, stretching from 1975 to 2001! This could have spelled disaster but it actually works very well. It is remarkable that the song quality, the vocal delivery, the overall production and the general level of musicianship are so consistently first rate from beginning to end. The listener never gets the impression that the tracks were recorded over such a long time span.
Bobby Charles wrote all tracks, except for the amazing remake of "Walkin to New Orleans" (co-written by Fats Domino, of course), which features a short but delightful vocal cameo by the Fat Man himself.
What this superb singer-songwriter offers here is roots Americana at its very best, a genuine cornucopia of American traditions filtered through a a personal vision of Crescent City Rhythm 'n' Blues.
All the material flows along satisfyingly enough, sung and performed with a relaxed confidence, a kind of musical bonhomie so laid back that it sometimes makes J. J. Cale sound positively restless in comparison! When I listen to this album, I pick one CD and play it in its entirety one, two or three times in a row. It is THAT good. So good indeed that I do not feel the need to list favourite tracks.
The lyrics have a suitably down home character while the musicianship is truly superb, quite often driven by the wonderful electric (slide) guitar from Sonny Landreth. But then again, there are so many fine musicians contributing that it is not possible to list them. I will mention some guest spots from, among others: Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Ben Keith, Dan Penn, Maria Muldaur, etc.
Now to a "statistical" aside: out of the 19 tracks included on CD 2, nine were previously released on the "Wish You Were Here Tonight" CD released in 1995 (the omitted tracks are: "Promises, Promises", "The Mardi-Gras Song" and "Peanut".) Another ten tracks were previously released on the "Secrets of The Heart" CD released in 1998 (the omitted tracks are: "You" and "Happy Birthday Fats Domino".)
Merci pour ce délice, Monsieur Guidry!
|
|
|
18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you buy nothing else, buy this, 28 April 2004
By A Customer
For about the first time in 20 years, I have found an album that I amdestined to play forever.
This is the nearest you get to the sound and feel of New Orleans short ofvisting, and all delivered in Bobby's beautiful careworn voice and backedup by some of the US's leading musical luminaries and players.
Every track is a standout. Every track is something you think you've beenlistening to all your life.
Bobby Charles' releases are rarer than full solar eclipses, and as abonus, a further 19 tracks are included giving a glimpse of what else thisgenius has been up to since his last outing.
All the good things about roots Americana are here - an encyclopaedia ofmodern American music and universal and timeless as a result. Beautiful.
|
|
|
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bobby Charles demonstrates his total mastery of R&B and Rock, 31 Jan 2007
God knows how I missed this when it was first released - I must have been dreaming! This is a superb, two-album set of Charles recorded in the 1980s and 1990s, with a host of superb musicians, some well-known and some less-known, as sidesmen. If you like the music of Lousiana, New Orleans, Memphis - if you like riffing horn arrangements, laid-back guitar and piano, and those totally tight rhythms, I need say no more. Above all, there's Bobby Charles' inimitable songs and voice - this is beyond all doubt a classic.
|
|
|
|
~ Bobby Charles
~ Fleet Foxes
~ Bob Dylan
~ The Felice Brothers
~ Buddy and Julie Miller
With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is). 
Amazon Home