David Clayton-Thomas – Combo

DAVID CLAYTON-THOMAS

Combo

Antoinette Music

davidclaytonthomas.com

Two years ago on A Blues for the New World, David Clayton-Thomas updated the familiar, brassy Blood, Sweat and Tears sound with a fine set of original songs. This time around, he has released a much quieter, very intimate set, mostly devoted to familiar jazz classics.

The tone for Combo is set in the opening number, a lovely version of “As Time Goes By” that opens with the melody perfectly stated by Mark Kieswetter at the piano. A few seconds later, David starts to quietly sing with George Koller’s bass providing the musical heartbeat. This is music to get lost in at 2 o’clock in the morning.

The formula is repeated on the next song, “Nature Boy,” except that it’s Ted Quinlan’s masterful touch on the guitar that perfectly states the introductory notes of the melody. David, who can shout a lyric with the best of them, is able to go deep into these intimate songs. His versatility in that regard is particularly evident in the way he redefines his approach to Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child,” sung here oh so differently than on the brassy Blood, Sweat and Tears version. On Combo, David’s treatment brings out the essence of the poignant lyrics while the musicians bring out the beauty of the melody.

Other highlights include a so very soulful version of “Stormy Monday” T-Bone Walker’s blues classic that has Kieswetter doing some wonderful double duty on the piano and Hammond organ; the late Allen Toussaint’s “Freedom for the Stallion” featuring superb harmonies from Jackie Richardson; and a stomping, New Orleans-style duet with Genevieve Marentette on “The Glory of Love.”

Perhaps my favorite piece is “Smile,” the inspiring bit of good advice whose melody was written by Charlie Chaplin for his 1936 film, Modern Times (the lyrics were added in 1954 when the song became a hit for Nat King Cole). I especially love the interplay on this number between David’s voice and Koller’s bass.

David has surrounded himself with a group of wonderful musicians who play superbly throughout Combo. In addition to Kieswetter, Koller and Quinlan, the album features Ben Riley on drums and Colleen Allen on sax.

Pictured: Mike Regenstreif and David Clayton-Thomas at CKUT during Folk Roots/Folk Branches, June 29, 2006. (Photo: Jadro Subic)

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--Mike Regenstreif

Chris Smither – Still on the Levee: A 50 Year Retrospective

CHRIS SMITHER
Still on the Levee: A 50 Year Retrospective
Signature Sounds 
smither.com

Chris Smither grew up in New Orleans and arrived on the folk scene in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the mid-1960s playing guitar in a unique style that he acknowledges was “one-third John Hurt, one-third Lightnin’ Hopkins and one-third me.”

I first discovered Chris via a couple of LPs released in the early-1970s and heard him live for the first time in 1978 when I was representing Priscilla Herdman and she shared a four-night bill with him at Passim, Bob Donlin’s legendary folk club in Cambridge’s Harvard Square. While Chris was already an excellent singer, songwriter, guitarist and performer back in those days, by the eary-1990s, he would really emerge as one of our finest folk-blues artists.

Now approaching age 70 and a half-century as a professional musician, Chris is one of those musicians who has continued to mature and become more compelling with time and on Still on the Levee, a superb 2-CD set, he returned to New Orleans to re-imagine and reinterpret 24 songs from across the length and breadth of his songwriting career. There are actually 25 tracks on the album but he ends each of the CDs with different versions of the title track from his 2006 album, Leave the Light On.

The first CD opens with “Devil Got Your Man,” one of Chris’ earliest songs and after listening to this album I decided to compare it to the 1970 version on I’m A Stranger Too. The guitar playing is more graceful, the groove is deeper and his singing voice – a wonderful drawl that is still rooted in New Orleans despite most of his life lived in the north – is more seductive. While I didn’t pull out the original versions of the rest of the songs (and I have them all), it seems to me that he pulls more out of each of them.

Each of these are great versions of great songs but among my favorites is “Rosalie,” which sounds to me like something Tim Hardin might have written if he hadn’t died so young and continued to mature as a songwriter.

Another is “No Love Today,” one of the most New Orleansian of Chris’ songs, which is mightily enhanced by the playing of Allen Toussaint, the legendary New Orleans pianist and songwriter.

Other highlights include “What They Say,” a fairly recent song that he does in fun duet with Loudon Wainwright III; “Up on the Lowdown,” a great tune that recalls Chris’ blues influences; and “A Song for Susan,” not so much a love song as a slow, sad song about love.

I also like the two versions of “Leave the Light On,” a song from the perspective of a mature man’s looking back at his life so far, at the future, and at mortality. The first is bouncy and all his own while the second – sung as a duet with Kate Lorenz of Rusty Belle – seems like a passing of the torch.

The 2-CDs come in enclosed in a beautifully-designed digipac long box with a large sized book that includes credits, lyrics to all of the songs and a bunch of great photos from the sessions and from distinctive neighborhoods of New Orleans. 

Chris Smither at the 2013 Ottawa Folk Festival (Mike Regenstreif)

Chris will be bringing his Still on the Levee tour to this past of Canada with dates in Toronto on September 26 at Hugh’s Room; here in Ottawa on September 27 at the NAC Fourth Stage;and in Montreal on September 28 at Petit Campus. 

I’ve seen Chris perform many times and he’s always been in excellent form.

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--Mike Regenstreif