My Amazon Reviews: James Lee Stanley and John Batdorf "All Wood and Stones II"

There's More Than One Way to Roll a Stone
5 Out Of 5 Stars

For the third CD in their "All Wood And..." series, singer songwriter James Lee Stanley teams up with past collaborator John Batdorf and takes another dip in the deep well of Mick Jagger/Keith Richards compositions. The previous effort, "All Wood and Doors" (James with Cliff Eberhardt) was so well conceived that Doors members John Densmore and Robby Krieger pitched in on the effort, and while Keith and Mick didn't join in the proceedings, "All Wood and Stones II" is done with the same amount of respect as James and John did on the previous effort.

What happens here is that James and John take songs you've heard a million times over and turn them inside out, folk-wise. That's not to say that you'll never recognize what songs are here, but you will notice some angles that you may not have before. "Get Off Of My Cloud" still has the playful call and response Hey! You! hook, but it still sports a neatly strummed arrangement. "Honky Tonk Woman" sounds more like an actual honky-tonk song. These are sung primarily by John, whose rough hewn voice nicely compliments James' clearer sound. It makes for some terrific harmonizing ("Time is On My Side").

My favorite is when they do a total reconstruction on the 1978 disco thumper, "Miss You." Slowed down and minus the dance beat, "Miss You" becomes a bluesier lament for an absent lover. Interestingly enough, the other song arrangement that I enjoy also comes from "Some Girls," Richards' personal recounting of his drug misadventures with the law, "Before They Make Me Run." In my opinion, it's the biggest surprise on "All Wood and Stones II." It's worth making it a two-pack with 2005's "All Wood and Stones."

     

My Amazon Reviews: The Rolling Stones "Grrr!"

Every Generation gets its Stones compilation.
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Just as 40 Licks was released to cover the Rolling Stones' 40th anniversary, it's time for a 50th Birthday set. "Grrr!" states the story of The Stones in multiple formats: you can purchase this album in 2, 3 or 5 disc sets. Way to market yourselves, guys.

That doesn't take away from the power of The Stones and their often ingenious singles. The first CD alone is a primer for rock and roll history, with "Satisfaction," "Jumping Jack Flash" and "Sympathy for The Devil" alone being the kind of songs bands would chew their hind legs off to compose...or even come up with a guitar lick as memorable. You'll also get a trio of the early, greasy Stones with "Come On," a cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" and Mick and Keith laying down some early blues with "Little Red Rooster." It's the kind of early material most compilations tend to skip over.

Disc two contains plenty of latter classics, like "Miss You," "Brown Sugar" and "Start Me Up." But it also reminds you why the band once titled one of their single disc sets "Sucking In The Seventies." It makes you stuck with weaker material like "Angie" or "Emotional Rescue," along with the 80's material that was the band turning into a polished hit machine. Some of these songs hold up surprisingly well, like "Undercover of The Night," but "Anybody Seen My Baby" could have been left off and I don't think I'd have noticed.

Of the new songs, "Doom and Gloom" has serious swagger while "One More Shot" runs on fumes, really. But that still makes a whole batch of Jagger/Richards composition (along with a couple covers, like the aforementioned Buddy Holly song and "Harlem Shuffle." And no-one keeps a beat like Charlie Watts. Like all Stones collections, you can't always get what you want (She's So Cold"), but sometimes you get what you need. Or depending on which set, what you pay for.

     

My Amazon Reviews: The Searchers "The Searchers (1979)"

Searchers Return  
4 Out of 5 Stars 

Original Searchers John MacNally and John Pender were the core of the original incarnation of The Searchers, playing on such classic songs as "Needles and Pins" and "Sweets for My Sweet." Frank Allan had been in the band from the late sixties on. Even if the hits had long stop coming, The Searchers soldiered on. Then, it seems, time caught up with them again. Their brand of jangle pop had been flaunted by everyone from Tom Petty to REM, and in 1979, Sire Records (home to Talking Heads, Ramones, etc) signed them for a new album.

The resulting "The Searchers" was a total surprise. Instead of reviving old hits or trying to chamge their sound, the band carefully selected modern songs from current writers and claimed them as their own. The biggest shocker was "Hearts In Her Eyes," written by Will Birch and John Wicks for English new wavers The Records' second album. It is the album's best song by a huge margin and should have been a comeback hit. The guitar and harmonies were tailor made for The Searchers' brand of music and performance, enough so that this is one of those rare instances where the cover outshines the original.

On other songs, such as Tom Petty's "Lost In Your Eyes" or Mickey Jupp's "Switchbaord Susan" (more famously covered by Nick Lowe), the same formula applies. Overall, this is one of those 60's comeback albums that doesn't fall flat or feel like cheap nostalgia. They followed this album with the equally well done "Love's Melodies" a year later. It's taken them a while to finally see their CD release, and it is well worth getting them if you're an 80's lover.

 

My Amazon Reviews: Keith Richards "Life"

Sometimes you get what you read

5 Out of 5 Stars

Keith Richards has lived in his own universe since his teens; as guitarist for the Rolling Stones, he's managed to not only become one of the defining guitarists of our lifetimes, he's also become such an out-sized personality that even those folks that don't really care about rock and roll know who he (and Mick Jagger) is. His exploits are the stuff of legend, his excesses and abuses would have destroyed dozens of men, and somewhere along the way he's had a hand in writing some of the last century's greatest rock and roll riffs.

You'd think with all that abuse, there wouldn't be much of his brain left to store all those memories. But big surprise. Not only does he play the steel strings like madman, he has a mind like a steel bear trap. Unlike Eric Clapton's biography that seemed to just be passage of passage of "I formed a band, we got wasted and recorded songs and I don't remember much," Richards manages to pull great amounts of detail from the entirety of his life, along with co-writer James Fox. Richards' ego is as loud as his guitar and "Life" puts all on full exhibit. It's interesting, sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, and often not very complimentary.

While there are times I was wanting for more details (like the passing of Brian Jones, for example), Richards doesn't gloss the issue away. This includes his many brushes with law enforcement and some of the notorious trials, like the Toronto bust that almost took him down. He also minces no words when it comes to his fellow Stones. Ronnie Wood takes his knocks, there's plenty of anecdotal - and mostly complimentary - stories about Charlie Watts, but plenty of savaging of Mick. Richards' defends Jagger as a brotherly relationship, and that anyone else knocking Mick should be ready for Keith to "slit their throat." On the other hand, there's an awful lot of direct hits on his bandmate, including one rather physically descriptive comment that will give you reason to wonder about why Mick insisted on the giant inflatable weenie was part of the Stones' '72 tour.

While I highly recommend this book, Richard's seems to be running out of interest in the last few years of his life. The final two chapters burn through the 80's on in near abbreviated manner, which may not matter much to folks who think that everything from "Steel Wheels" on was ultimately forgettable. He skims through it all in surprisingly brisk fashion. Regardless, "Life" is a terrific rock and roll book.