DR. JOHN
& THE LOWER 911– city that care forgot
(CD, Cooking Vinyl)
It all started with hearing that Dr. John has a song on
this together with Willie
Nelson. Which is cool from the moment you read it. I mean, seeing
Dr. John and Willie Nelson doing a song together can’t be bad, right? (If
you think this is weird, check out Willie Nelson’s collaboration with
Wynton Marsalis.) The original vodoo doctor, who has been maximizing his own
blend of greasy funk boogaloo mash for more than four centuries meeting up
with one of the last remaining outlaws and everybody’s favorite freak
granddaddy – there is nothing much better (except probably for Johnny Cash singing
with Nick Cave,
which won’t ever happen again, unfortunately). “promises, promises” is
a cool, grooving soul stomper, that proves that honky tonk piano fits a lot
of worlds as long as they are hard working, hard drinking and honest. Willie
Nelson does his best not to be drowned by the onslought of laidback
coolness, but being cool is something that he can handle easily. This is so
damn good, even the Eric Clapton guitar solos on other songs of the album
start to sound good.
There is a bunch of other people helping out and
joining in on the recordings such as Ani DiFranco and Terence Blanchard, but
all in all it is a more than classic, relaxed and respectable recording of
the old man. Like a lot of really good records by a long list of old time
artists, this also plays with the fact that concentrating on the core vision
of the songwriter in question and producing / recording with an idea of
honesty, down-to-earthness and reality is the best thing that may happen. Neil Diamond, Lee
Hazlewood, hell, even Johnny Cash had been drowned in a lot of music
production shit (or in the case of Dr. John Big Band jazz...) before they
were revived and dusted off for albums that showed the young dudes how it is
really done. A million myspace-friends don’t make up for not being able to
play a real blues lick or having no talent in songwriting and trying to
drown that in odd screaming or weirdness. Talk to Dr. John about weirdness
boy, you may walk away ashamed as soon as you have realized you have been
talking to the grandfather of weird cool.
Of course, “City that care forgot” is about New
Orleans, the home and haven of Mac Rebennack, the voodoo doctor aka Dr.
John. This is where he has donned feather boas and diamond rings and
costumes more flamboyant and outrageous than the carneval in Rio could ever
muster, and worn them with style and grace. This is the city where he made
his own special brew and delivered a slew of everlasting great records like
“Gris Gris”, “Right place, wrong time” and “Remedies”. This is
the city where in the middle of the dreary Nineties he took Willy DeVille by
the hand and led him back to the magic well of New Orleans soul fusion (and
I don’t mean the food only) and away from the bleak days of having his
records produced by Mark Knopfler (!!! and ?) More than special, baby, much
more than special. “City that care forgot” is an old school record, and
I mean the real swamp groove. Something that you don’t get too much any
more. Mofro / JJ Grey
is one artist that still has that sense of place and a pocket full of cool
guitar licks. On here you have rolling and grooving horn sections and tight
bass / rhythm sections, the dirty and low down funky as well and a lot of
good times. It’l be a good lecture to both old timers and young dudes to
see how it is done.
