This<\/i>. <\/p>\n
This is what albums are for; this why they still matter (and always will). <\/p>\n
A voice, clear and distinct, with a story, vivid and textured, in the hands of an artist of tremendous skill, employing the tools and traditions that made him want to make music in the first place, but shaping them into something fresh and distinctly his own\u2014a vision, a world, for you, the listener, to inhabit. <\/p>\n
In the past, it\u2019s sometimes seemed like Gary Clark Jr. was trying to be all of his influences at once. He\u2019d veer from track to track between soloing with Hendrix-like abandon and crooning like Smokey Robinson, spouting urban street poetry like Gil Scott-Heron or delivering stinging blues licks like Albert King. For all the musical heights he scaled on albums like Blak And Blu<\/i>\u2014one of the best albums of 2012, no question about it\u2014if you wanted to criticize anything, you might have said that, as a songwriter\/arranger, he could sometimes seem a little unfocused. Not this time. The Story Of Sonny Boy Slim<\/i> is a cohesive musical statement constructed around sturdy beams of classic soul and deep blues, whose rock, folk and gospel influences function as accents rather than competing visions. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Having announced his narrative ambitions with this album\u2019s title, Clark sets the tone immediately with a urban soundscape featuring the ancient, world-weary voice of Christopher Copeland singing an old African-American spiritual, cross-cutting into the ringing deep-blues opening of \u201cThe Healing,\u201d a sort of overture-slash-topic sentence for the album. \u201cThis music is my healing,\u201d sings Clark, and \u201cLord knows we need some healing, yeah \/ \u2019Cause when this world upsets me \/ This music sets me free.\u201d Here are the primal roots of blues, gospel, and rock and roll, resurrected and reinvigorated.<\/p>\n
Next up, \u201cGrinder\u201d gets down to business with a heavy blues groove as Clark sings about the very pain that music heals, the Sisyphean struggle to support a family that ends when Sonny\u2019s father bolts (\u201dSeems like everyone\u2019s talking ’bout money \/ So, I\u2019ve got to get me some \/ My baby\u2019s crying \/ So now my baby\u2019s crying \/ We always fighting for money \/ But, girl, I ain\u2019t got the time\u201d). The song finishes with a banshee wail of guitar feedback, the agonized cry of a child as his father walks away.<\/p>\n
\u201cStar\u201d opens with ominous, guitar-generated white noise before resolving into a deep soul-funk groove, with Clark singing in a gorgeous falsetto, relaying affirmations (\u201cGo on and shine \/ I want you to shine\u201d) such as might be passed down from a loving mother to her son. Like most great soul tunes, it\u2019s anchored by a loping, elastic bass line that\u2019s right out of Philly 1973.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur Love\u201d is an epic song of love and devotion, all gospel-blues church organ and delicate falsetto over a stately rhythm, and full of the real-life push and pull of falling in love. First he asserts \u201cYou are my lady \/ I am your man \/ Some call it crazy \/ They just didn\u2019t understand\u2026.\u201d And then you realize this is half true and half bluster, as he circles back and pleads: \u201cCome on, girl \/ Let me be your man \/ Keep it together, babe \/ They don’t have to understand \/ Our love.\u201d Somewhere, Marvin Gaye is smiling.<\/p>\n
Here and throughout, Clark embellishes what is a true solo album\u2014he plays two guitars, bass and drums himself on the majority of these tracks\u2014with the Hard Proof Horns, organ and piano from Lewis Stephens, and a soaring background vocal chorus comprised of sisters Shawn and Savannah Clark.<\/p>\n
\u201cChurch\u201d opens in country-folk-blues mode with acoustic guitar, tambourine, harmonica and a distinct Woody Guthrie vibe, at least until the gospel choir comes in. As the song develops, it becomes clear Sonny is following in his father\u2019s footsteps, foundering under the weight of his responsibilities and battling despair. \u201cI worked \/ Long hours \/ Now I’m drunk \/ And I’m stoned \/ I’m all alone \/ Miles from home \/ Lord, my Lord \/ I need your helpin’ hand.\u201d It\u2019s a traditional spiritual transposed into a modern urban setting, a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders, asking for help.<\/p>\n
A second wind arrives with \u201cHold On.\u201d Over a mid-tempo funk beat, using stinging guitar breaks as exclamation points, Clark essays the struggle of a generation: \u201cWhat am I gonna tell my babies, when \/ They don’t understand \/ My pressure, my struggle, my demands, yeah \/ Back then, I didn’t understand when my pops came home saying \/ That he couldn’t take it, but \/
It’s hard to be a good man knowing that a man’s plan \/ Is to take what you making.\u201d Still, he persists, asserting \u201cHold on, we\u2019re going to make it.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n
A new form of trouble arrives with \u201cCold-Blooded,\u201d as a wandering eye earns Sonny a stalker. On the bridge, Clark matches his own falsetto with ringing guitar licks in spectacular precision, before the horn section carries the song back to its soul roots. \u201cWings\u201d finds Sonny gaining success but no peace, an echoey meditation that feels at times like half-speed hip-hop played with blues instrumentation. He\u2019s on top of the world when the brief interlude \u201cBYOB\u201d sets him up for a fall; you know the minute he sings \u201cI got money in my pocket \/ I got a drink in my hand \/ I feel like nothing can stop me\u201d that something bad is about to happen. Right on cue, he meets \u201cthe girl with trouble in her eyes\u201d in the densely funky, very catchy \u201cCan\u2019t Sleep.\u201d He\u2019s in trouble and he knows it: \u201cI gotta leave you alone but I can\u2019t \/ And I can\u2019t go home.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cStay\u201d is the climax of the album, a thundery, blustery, at times rather Zeppelin-esque blues-rock number, deliberate in tempo but cinemascope-huge in sound. \u201cEvery time I see you it feels like the first time \/ Every time I leave you, I lose my mind\u201d declares Clark\/Sonny, his pleas ever more fervent until, by the fourth minute, the song begins to feel like it\u2019s losing its center and flying apart. <\/p>\n
After that crescendo, \u201cShake\u201d finds Clark in full-on party-boogie mode, a deceptively upbeat tune masking a lyric that could be read as either celebratory or desperate: \u201cDon\u2019t stop, baby, shake it loose \/ Don\u2019t stop \u2019til you lose your blues… Don\u2019t stop \u2019til the break of dawn \/ You know I ain\u2019t comin\u2019 home.\u201d The frantic dance continues until the track exhausts itself. <\/p>\n
Closer \u201cDown To Ride\u201d opens with a languid yet foreboding synth-bass-drums theme as Clark comes in with a wordless falsetto that gradually resolves into a desperate plea: \u201cBaby I need your love, baby I want your love.\u201d As this intense neo-soul number builds, Sonny\u2019s choice becomes clear, and his fate sealed, as he follows in his father\u2019s footsteps: \u201cNow I won\u2019t be alone \/ \u2019Cause I got a girl who\u2019s down to ride with me \/ Damn she looks good on that passenger side with me \/ No more time wasted thinkin\u2019 \u2019bout the past \/ With just that rearview, got my foot on the gas.\u201d The last two and a half minutes of this eight-minute track are an extended outro, the synth and rhythm section easing off to form a spacey backdrop as Clark coaxes a series of cries and moans from his guitar, a sort of requiem for what\u2019s been lost, again. <\/p>\n
Clark\u2019s penchant for guitar pyrotechnics pops up in places, but is used more strategically here than on Blak And Blu<\/i>; this time around he\u2019s more focused on telling a story than making his bones as a guitar slinger. That and much of the above is really just details, though. The headline here is that the guy who was already a shining star of the modern scene has now taken it to the next level. The Story Of Sonny Boy Slim<\/i> has everything a listener could ask for: emotion, integrity, vivid storytelling, and expert musicianship. If a better album has come out in 2015, I haven\u2019t heard it yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":32509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[9197],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-44271","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-gary-clark-jr","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44271","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44271"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44271"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}