Categories : Jazz + Blues, Music Reviews.
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Rating: 3/5 Released: November 7, 2006 Reviewer: Trent Depue |
The Road to Escondido brings together Eric Clapton, who brings his trademark vocal and guitar prowess to the table, and JJ Cale, a legend in his own right who brings most everything else. The collaboration does showcase aspects of both their stylings, but for the most part is dominated by Cale, following his blues shuffle musical form. The album is also almost entirely penned by Cale, another area he has more than proven his abilities in having written Eric Clapton’s ‘Cocaine’ and ‘After Midnight,’ ‘Call Me the Breeze,’ which has been covered by many including Lynyrd Skynyrd, as well as a seemingly endless list of others that have been recorded by the likes of The Band, Jerry Garcia and Santana.
And though Cale’s lyrics are frequently critical, as best illustrated by ‘When This War is Over,’ the obligatory anti-war slogan, and ‘It’s Easy,’ a tongue in cheek look at how easily we can solve some of life’s problems, he manages in both cases to present his arguments with a fun and uplifting tempo and in a classy fashion. Despite excellent writing though, the presentation is at times lacking as Cale and Clapton often seem to mumble their way through the verses to the point the lyrics are hard to discern.
That being said, the musical production is fantastic, if slightly over indulgent, laying host to a plethora of extra help. Four drummers, four bassists, five guitarists, strings, horns and further percussionists make up most of the pack that includes such heavy hitters as John Mayer and Taj Mahal. This abundance of musical talent coupled with Cale and Clapton’s inspiring chemistry makes for a fun and up lifting album that leaves you wondering why it took so long for these two to get together.
Buy The Road to Escondido from iTunes >> 
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