Since launching his solo career with self-titled 1970 debut, Eric Clapton has always been pushed to his best when challenged by another strong guitarist. His musical history is littered with such moments – witness Derek & the Dominos' Layla (with Duane Allman); 1989's Journeyman (with Robert Cray); or 2000's Riding With The King (with B.B. King). It was with some measured expectations, then, that fans anticipated Clapton, the guitar legend's first album in four years, a collection of blues and jazz covers to be produced by Doyle Bramhall II, Clapton's long-time musical foil, and including guitarist Derek Trucks.
Eric Clapton's Clapton
Clapton opens promisingly enough with a dusty cover of Texas bluesman Melvin Jackson's obscure gem "Travelin' Along." Driven unmercifully by the rhythm section of bassist Willie Weeks and drummer Jim Keltner, and fleshed out by Walt Richmond's keyboard flourishes and Doyle Bramhall's rattletrap guitar, the song rolls along like a riverboat on the mighty Mississippi. Clapton's drawled vocals are Delta-dirty, his guitar simply stinging, the overall vibe of the song a menacing mix of Lightnin' Hopkins and Charley Patton.
By contrast, Clapton's cover of Hoagy Carmichael's "Rocking Chair" is so laid-back as to be sleeping...the guitarist's lifeless vocals are too lazy in an approximation of a throwback jazz style, the shuffling rhythms are maddeningly bland, and even the presence of Derek Trucks' normally spot-on fretwork doesn't help resuscitate the sloppy arrangement. Clapton partially redeems himself with J.J. Cale's "Rive Runs Deep," which includes the reclusive songwriter on guitar and backing vocals. While delivered in Cale's typically casual (and almost catatonic) style, the presence of lush instrumentation, including horns and strings, serves to highlight Clapton's subdued vocals and supple guitarplay.
Snooky Pryor & Irving Berlin
Snooky Pryor's "Judgment Day" gets a 'B' grade, mostly for the inspired vocal harmony arrangement, and for the wry harp provided by Fabulous Thunderbirds' frontman Kim Wilson. Although the song is needlessly jazzed-up, and Clapton's meager vocals virtually disappear into the song, it musically swings like a pendulum. The Irving Berlin classic "How Deep Is The Ocean" suffers greatly from too little, too late...Clapton simply isn't a Sinatra-styled crooner, no matter how hard he tries, and his slight vocals here are further mired in an uninspired and tired-sounding performance that sinks beneath the weight of the arrangement, in spite of Clapton's elegant guitar tone. Knock off another point for the insufferable trumpet of Wynton Marsalis.Clapton takes a New Orleans tack on "My Very Good Friend The Milkman" with tragic results. Although keyboard-pounders Walt Richmond and Crescent City musical legend Allen Toussaint spices up the song with a bit of flavored pianoplay, Marsalis's trumpet rolls around again to jarring effect, accompanied by a bleating tuba and fellow horn player Trombone Shorty. Just when you're about to throw up your hands and throw in the towel, Clapton comes up aces again with a scorching take on Little Walter's "Can't Hold Out Much Longer." Using basically the same band as on "Travelin' Along," with Kim Wilson taking Walter's seat, the song sizzles with a dirty Chicago blues sound. Clapton's voice is much better in this lower register, his vibrating fretwork shuffling lively aside Wilson's harp pyrotechnics.
J.J. Cale & Doyle Bramhall
A New Orleans-flavored take of Robert Wilkins' country-blues "That's No Way To Get Along" fares better than Clapton's earlier attempt at Cajun flavor, this one rocking and rolling like drunken tourists on Bourbon Street. Clapton's energetic guitarplay takes on a Sonny Landreth vibe, his breathless vocals echoed by friend J.J. Cale, the horns rightfully kept in the background, shuffling rhythms providing just enough impetuous to keep the party going. Cale's "Everything Will Be Alright" is a piece of fluff that fails to excite, lapsing into Clapton's lazy bad habits, while Bramhall's "Diamonds Made From Rain" is a miserable ballad used as an excuse for a duet between Clapton and former flame Sheryl Crow, the song kept from being completely useless by a couple of distinctive guitar solos.
"When Somebody Thinks You're Wonderful" suffers from bizarre vocals and busy instrumentation that sounds more like a parody than an actual stab at art. A country-blues take on "Hard Times Blues" features Clapton delivering some filigree mandolin play while Bramhall cranks up the six-string. The Clapton/Bramhall original "Run Back To Your Side" rocks harder than anything else on Clapton, evoking memories of the guitarist's early solo work, melding guitar-driven rock with Texas roadhouse blues and rollicking R&B, easily the best song on the album. The interplay of Clapton, Bramhall, and Derek Trucks on guitar is simply priceless. Sadly, another jazz-flavored ballad mars the finish of Clapton, another attempt at crooning sluggishly delivered with sleepy guitarwork.
The Reverend's Bottom Line
To say that Clapton is disappointing would be an understatement. You'd think that the inclusion of two talented guitarists in Doyle Bramhall II and Derek Trucks would have spurred ol' 'Slowhand' on to greater creative heights, but it didn't work out that way. While about half of the fourteen songs on Clapton display some spark or flame in their performance, fully half of them merely smell like damp, smoldering embers.
Clapton is at its best when the guitarist is re-imagining a blues obscurity ("Travelin' Alone," "That's No Way To Get Along") or rocking old-school ("Run Back To Your Side"). Whenever the guitarist tries to channel his inner Lonnie Johnson, trying to jazz up songs like his buddy B.B King is capable of, the album falls flatter than a day-old soufflé. The result is a lot of shattered expectations, and a recording that is half as great as it could have been. (Reprise Records, released September 28, 2010)
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