{"id":45507,"date":"2019-01-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/just-the-clothes-on-my-back\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T11:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T11:20:09","slug":"just-the-clothes-on-my-back","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/just-the-clothes-on-my-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Just The Clothes On My Back"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is of course a long history of music inspired by writing, from Hamilton<\/i><\/a> (inspired by the Ron Chernow biography Alexander Hamilton<\/i>) to Yes\u2019 Tales From Topographic Oceans<\/i><\/a> (inspired by various Hindu scriptures and a ton of weed). There has also been plenty of writing inspired by music<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The point is, music and writing enjoy a naturally symbiotic relationship; one form of creative expression feeds the other even as they both feed the imagination. What\u2019s fresh and different in the case of Just The Clothes On My Back<\/i>, the new album from husband-and-wife Americana duo Naked Blue, is that Jennifer Ferguson Smith (lead vocals & guitars) and Scott Smith (lead guitar, background vocals, production) actively collaborated on these songs with the writer whose fictional creation is brought to musical life here. And it\u2019s hardly an obscure creation\u2014it\u2019s bestselling author Lee Child\u2019s iconic ex-military drifter Jack Reacher, the American ronin who wanders the countryside alone, dispensing justice before moving on once again. <\/p>\n

Lee Child has been here before, trying to help Reacher make the leap into another medium, and it hasn\u2019t always gone well. As sharp as the action was in the two recent Hollywood movies, most avid fans of the book rejected the idea of 5\u20197\u201d pretty boy Tom Cruise playing Reacher, described in the books as a craggy 6\u20196\u201d mountain of a man. Among the many wise choices made here is to keep the songs in first person for the sake of immediacy, while embracing the idea of having a woman sing them. It might be counterintuitive, but Jennifer Smith\u2019s voice works better here singing the thoughts of Jack Reacher than almost any man\u2019s could; it removes any pretense that she\u2019s acting out the part of Reacher in a radio play, and allows you to simply engage with the songs.<\/p>\n

The songs themselves are bold, assertive blues-rock tunes that, thanks to Jennifer Smith\u2019s throaty, expressive delivery, remind of artists like Susan Tedeschi and Lucinda Williams without feeling derivative of either; Naked Blue is its own thing, a potent pairing whose natural rawness and muscle suit the Reacher ethos beautifully. <\/p>\n

The opening title track sketches the essence of Reacher\u2019s compulsion for autonomy, declaring \u201cI found out the hard way, you don\u2019t own things, they own you.\u201d The privileges and pitfalls of this extreme form of freedom are explored further in \u201cAlone,\u201d where Reacher notes \u201cI was born alone, I have lived alone, I will die alone.\u201d <\/p>\n

In almost every Reacher book there\u2019s a moment when he connects with someone he meets along his path and shares a moment (or two or three) of passion. While it takes a moment when \u201cSanctuary\u201d begins to adjust to Smith\u2019s female voice describing a love scene from Reacher\u2019s perspective, the universality of the human experience being described is underscored by the song\u2019s chorus: \u201cWill you be my sanctuary \/ My harbor in this wild and bitter sea? \/ You always need me strong \/ Now will you let me be weak?\u201d Supporting an evocative, insightful lyric, the music does a steady build to a patch of assertive guitar towards the end. <\/p>\n

\u201cBig Man\u201d brings the inimitable Reacher swagger as he warns an obstacle \u201cThat\u2019s a door you don\u2019t want to open \/ You\u2019re gonna get something broken,\u201d supported by a menacing riff and propulsive backbeat. At the album\u2019s midpoint, Child makes his only vocal appearance, intoning \u201cReacher said\u2026\u201d as a winking introduction to moody instrumental piece \u201cReacher Said Nothing\u201d (a phrase Child uses frequently to describe his leading man\u2019s typically taciturn approach). <\/p>\n

The second half of this concise 34-minute album finds Naked Blue trying out different musical shadings on a number of similar themes. \u201cEighty-Eight Steps\u201d explores the wistful side of a solitary life, while \u201cMidnight Train\u201d employs a sassy honky-tonk feel well-suited to a more playful exploration of Reacher\u2019s randy side. \u201cBlessed Or Cursed\u201d delivers a churning commentary on Reacher\u2019s nose for trouble, with the Smiths slipping in a funny line about the British-born Child himself in the third minute: \u201cI met a man born in Coventry \/ He was tall, and thin, and his name was Lee \/ He said \u2018I know you better, that\u2019s for damn sure \/ I\u2019ll start you out on a killing floor\u2019\u201d (the first Reacher novel was titled The Killing Floor<\/i>). <\/p>\n

After the too-familiar \u201cleather and lace\u201d ballad \u201cCanvas,\u201d the album closes in style with \u201cKilling Floor,\u201d a gritty acoustic blues that builds steadily into a rousing electric thumper, putting an emphatic exclamation point on the proceedings. This ambitious project had many potential pitfalls, all of which the Smiths seem to have avoided. Just The Clothes On My Back<\/i> achieves the notable trick of bringing a well-known fictional character to life in song in a way that honors both the author\u2019s conception of the character and readers\u2019 expectations, while also offering fresh perspectives and insights into what makes him tick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":33686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10297],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-45507","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-naked-blue","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45507","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=45507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45507"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}