Dancing down the stony road --- Chris Rea -- 2002 (Edel)
What would you do if you were diagnosed with a major life-threatening disease, and then beat it, getting a second chance at life? For Chris Rea, this question was put to him in 2001, when he was told he was suffering from pancreatic cancer, and was in very real danger of dying. Spending six months at home recovering after successful treatments, Rea says that he began to re-evaluate his life, and his work. He had become known for pop/rock anthems such as "Stainsby girls", "Auberge", "Wired to the moon" and of course "Fool (if you think it's over)", made more successful by Elkie Brooks. But his first love had always been the blues, and when he came face-to-face with his own fragile mortality, and realised once and for all how short life is, he decided to forget about the charts and rock music and concentrate on making albums of blues music.
One of these efforts was Herculean to say the least: an eleven-disc box set of blues-inspired songs, containing artwork all created by him. But prior to that he released his first album since recovering from his illness. In 2002 he returned for the first time to his blues roots, with an album of original material inspired by his blues heroes. I haven't heard all his albums, though I do have a lot of them, and I've yet to take the plunge and purchase "Blue guitars", but this definitely ranks for me right up there with his very best, like "Dancing with strangers", "Wired to the moon" and "King of the beach". It's different, certainly, but at its heart it's the Chris Rea we know and love.
His familiar but normally only sporadically-used slide guitar is the first thing you hear, very Delta blues in sound on the opener "Easy rider", and it's almost a minute before muted percussion and bass hit in, then Chris's voice --- which listening to this you immediately realise was born to sing the blues --- comes in with some fine harmonica deepening the blues feel and some serious work on the slide, piano thumping in and the whole thing comes to a powerful climax in the fourth minute of the five the song runs for, then sort of tailing away at the end. More wild slide in the title track, with the addition of banjo and what sounds like a jew's harp but probably isn't. It's another slowburner with a certain sense of bluegrass about it, and some of the most heartfelt lyrics:
"Me and Katy/ We go dancin' down that stony road/ To see her laughin' through the pain/ Such a heavy load."
The tempo kicks up then for "Dancing my blues away" with some top-notch accordion courtesy of Ed Hession, a real flavour of bands like The Waterboys or the Hooters in it, very celtic feel about it, then "Catfish girl" keeps things upbeat while still pulling back on the throttle a little. More bluegrass style to this, with chunky banjo and some honky-tonk piano, some more cool harmonica but possibly could have a better end considering how it builds up; slight disappointment I feel. Banjo and harmonica take the lead for "Burning feet", and it's a pretty low-key song that yet smoulders, Rea's voice matching the mood of the song perfectly. Trilling piano leads in "Slowdance", with a great thumping bassline, as Rea recalls when he first heard the blues. A wah-wah pedal on the guitar adds a smoky feel to the song and when it explodes in the last minute the guitar goes into overdrive, almost screaming for mercy.
There's a super little slide guitar instrumental in the appropriately-named "Segway", which is essentially a continuation of "Slowdance" to take us into "Mississippi", --- the second of his songs to bear the title --- with an appropriate shimmy on the harmonica then marching drums followed by strident banjo joined by Chicago blues guitar and for a minute I think I've put on a Rory Gallagher album by accident. Till Chris starts singing of course. The song pounds along like a parade, a joyful celebration and return to the hometown (though of course Rea is an Englishman; still, he's not the only one to profess a love for and an affinity with the USA). The banjo keeps up a constant melody throughout the song and is supplemented by the guitar with dashes of harmonica all over the place. Big, loud and proud is how you'd have to describe this song.
By contrast, "So lonely" is a droning dirge almost entirely on the slide guitar, with very little in the way of a lyric to be honest, and a little below par. It is however quite short and the first disc ends on a stunner, the six-minute "Heading for the city", a real anthem that starts off on simple guitar with separate notes on the piano before the melody begins to establish itself as Rea comes in on the vocal, the lyrical content somewhat similar to "Looking for a rainbow" off "The road to Hell". The piano actually develops into quite a Supertramp style before the tune ramps up on the back of organ and rising guitar, boogeying along nicely as the tempo picks up, a big guitar and organ finish to take us to the midway point through this two-disc set.
A humming little bass and gospel-style piano take us into disc two as "Ride on" sweeps in on the wings of sultry slide guitar, and Gerry Moore's banjo comes in to add its own country/bluegrass flavour to the song, one of the standouts on either disc. Sadly, things take a serious turn for the worse with the truly awful "When the good lord talked to Jesus", which is just dour and depressing, almost acoustic with dark vocal from Rea, and not a bad idea but it gets overplayed and stretched out to breaking point. Mind you it seems to be about parental abuse so I guess the tone suits the lyrical subject matter, but damn it's depressing and I'm glad when it's over. Still, this is supposed to be the blues so what ya gonna do?
Luckily that's the last low point on an album that, to be fair, it has to be said has very few. "Qualified" trips along on a bluesy harmonica and piano line, while there's joyful gospel in "Sun is rising", which opens on sultry slide and again almost acoustic in its barebones style before the piano and percussion cut in as the song takes a serious upswing, like a sort of "darkest before the dawn" idea. Thick, swirling organ comes in to ride along beside the happy piano and joyful guitar with harmonica jumping on for the trip too, and the song is a real example of going almost from one extreme to another, ending far different to the way it began. Also another standout. Great little ballad then in "Some day my peace will come", soft piano and trilling banjo in almost a mandolin-style and an impassioned vocal from Chris as organ builds in the background, with a real sense of loss and regret in the slowburn "Got to be moving on" before Chris reaffirms his decision to change his life perhaps in "Ain't going down this way", a real swinger with great guitar and a rhythm that just makes you want to move.
If you take the two discs as one work, then the closer for the whole thing perhaps bookends the two sides of his musical career, his music if you like pre-cancer and that which he explored after surviving the tumour. If you look at it as two albums, the first one closed powerfully while the second is more understated, more like gently closing a door on a sleeping child than slamming it shut. But before that we've got two more tracks to go, and "Changing times" is just a nice, uptempo fun rocker with a great Gallagheresque guitar riff running through it, while "The hustler" has a great country vibe about it with a generous dollop of "Roadhouse blues" and really does punch above its weight. To be fair the closer isn't bad. It's a nice relaxing ballad in the mould of "Seabird" from his "Deltics" album, but it just seems to sort of break the blues theme of the album, and nods back, as I say, to his earlier material. Nothing wrong with that, but given that he's already decided not to record any more of that sort of music, it's odd to say the least that he includes such a song on the album, and indeed, the last track on it.
TRACKLISTING
Disc 1
1. Easy rider
2. Stony road
3. Dancing my blues away
4. Catfish girl
5. Burning feet
6. Slowdance
7. Segway
8. Mississippi
9. So lonely
10. Heading for the city
Disc 2
1. Ride on
2. When the good lord talked to Jesus
3. Qualified
4. Sun is rising
5. Someday my peace will come
6. Got to be moving on
7. Ain't going down this way
8. Changing times
9. The hustler
10. Give that girl a diamond
In 2005 Chris Rea decided, and announced, that he would no longer record under his own name. He was not going to retire from music, per se, but would continue to write, record and tour under the name of the band he had put together, Memphis Fireflies. He also created a fictional band called The Delmonts under whose name he toured his 2007 release, "The return of the Fabulous Hofner Bluenotes". But Chris Rea, as a solo artiste, would appear to have called it a day. You can't blame him, with shocking, lifechanging news like that: it's a wonder indeed that he didn't hang up his guitar completely.
On the basis of this album, some of his finest and most personal work to date, I'm damn glad he didn't.