So I’m listening to the “soundtrack” to the latest documentary
\nfrom director D.A. Pennebacker,
\nSearching For Jimi Hendrix<\/i>, and I think to myself, “Do we
\nreally need another Hendrix cover album?”<\/p>\n
After all, it has only been about eight years since
\nStone Free<\/i> came out and did a respectable job of presenting
\nthe music of the legendary guitarist in a whole new light. (There
\nwas something satisfying about hearing artists like The Cure cover
\n“Purple Haze”.)<\/p>\n
But
\nSearching For Jimi Hendrix<\/i> does something that
\nStone Free<\/i> didn’t: It presents a more diverse group of
\nartists, including some that you might never have heard of prior to
\nthis album. And while I can’t say that all the translations are
\ngreat, I’d like to think that the artists’ hearts were in the right
\nplace.<\/p>\n
First, a warning: If you pick this disc up expecting to hear
\nclose-to-the-bone renditions of the songs, you’re gonna be real
\ndisappointed. Of course, this was not the overall goal for the
\nalbum; each artist got their own chance to interpret a Hendrix song
\n– not necessarily a well-known one either – in their own
\nmanner.<\/p>\n
Some of these work well. Taylor Dayne’s electronica-laden
\nversion of “The Wind Cries Mary” is surprisingly good, as is Laurie
\nAnderson’s rendition of “1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)” – and
\nfrankly, I don’t like Anderson’s work in general, so this
\nhas<\/i> to be a kick-ass version.<\/p>\n
Artists who you’d never expect to be listening to, much less
\nplaying, Hendrix pull off the most convincing shockers on
\nSearching For Jimi Hendrix<\/i>. Rosanne Cash’s version of “Manic
\nDepression” isn’t perfect, but it’s an interesting take. Likewise,
\nMark Isham possibly captures the jazziness of Hednrix’s songwriting
\nand playing the best with his cover of “Stone Free”. And, quite
\npossibly, we see the torch of Latin rock pass from Los Lobos (“Are
\nYou Experienced”) to Los Illegals (“Little Wing”).<\/p>\n
But there are disappointments on this disc as well. Charlie
\nMusselwhite tries to keep “Here My Train A-Comin'” close to the
\nblues roots, but it comes off sounding incredibly antiquated.
\nLikewise, Five Blind Boys From Alabama don’t quite pull it off with
\ntheir a capella version of “Drifting,” though I really wanted to
\nhear their contribution to this project. And Chuck D.’s
\n“Hendrix-inspired” rap on “Free At The Edge Of An Answer” – well,
\nI’m sorry, but this just doesn’t feel like it belongs on the
\nproject. (If I had to pick a song for Chuck to have done, I’d have
\nselected “Crosstown Traffic”.)<\/p>\n
\nSearching For Jimi Hendrix<\/i> has highs and lows like any
\ntribute album, but it does hold its own weight well – and shows me
\nthat the world was indeed ready for another Hendrix tribute
\ndisc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5827],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38957","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-various-artists","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38957"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}