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John Hammond jr.: Ready for Love

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Virgin Records
Released: 2003.02.11
Time:
 51:37
Category: Blues
Producer(s): David Hidalgo
Rating: *********. (9/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.johnhammond.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2003.05.06
Price in €: 16,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Slick Crown Vic (Hammond) - 3:30
[2] No Chance (Halby/Hidalgo) - 4:10
[3] Easy Loving (Hart) - 3:14
[4] Gin Soaked Boy (Waits) - 3:50
[5] Spider and the Fly (Jagger/Richards) - 4:11
[6] Can't Remember to Forget (Portnoy) - 3:32
[7] Color of the Blues (Jones/Williams) - 2:47
[8] Same Thing (Dixon) - 5:48
[9] I Brought the Rain (Halby/Hidalgo) - 3:25
[10] Comes Love (Brown/Stept/Tobias) - 3:06
[11] Low Side of the Road (Waits) - 4:55
[12] Money Honey (Stone) - 4:52
[13] Just One More (Jones) - 4:09

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


JOHN PAUL HAMMOND - Vocals, Guitar. Harp
FRANK CARILLO - Guitar
AUGIE MEYERS - Organ, Piano, Accordion
MARTY BALLOU - Bass
STEPHEN HODGES - Drums, Percussion
DAVID HIDALGO - Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals

SOOZIE TYRELL - Fiddle, Vocals

MARLA HAMMOND - Co-Producer, Musicians Photo
PAUL BABIN - Executive Producer, Management
OZ FRITZ - Engineer
CHRIS CUBETA - Assistant Engineer
KENDALL MESSIC - Photography
RITA LEISTNEROZ- Ass. Photography
CONNIE GAGE - Design
TOM WAITS - Liner Notes

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2003 CD Back Porch 80599


Liner Notes:

Used to be songs weren't written down, they Circulated like rumors or humor, scary stories, bad news, good news, and everyone whose hands they passed through put their mark on them and the Songs put their mark on you, songs that were filled with truths that are as true today as they were in Muddy Waters day, songs about cheap wine, prison, women, depression, desire, liquor, trains, death, and momma. Songs that grew wild all over this country, along ridges, under bridges, in road houses, and train yards, in creek beds, in motel beds, along highways. John Hammond learned from the masters, Muddy, John Lee Hooker, Skip James, Son House, Johnny Shines, Sonny and Brownie, Albeit King, Hendrix, James Cotton, and now he is a master. John Hammond has made all these songs his own, songs that carry secrets and cautions, truths, confessions and shadows. Hollered, shouted out and moaning low. Songs have fingerprints on them and there are places where they are worn down or broken in, like a shovel or a saddle or a guitar or a gun. Because songs migrate like seeds do on the wind, in the water, and in birds. John is one of those birds that picks up a song here and carries it to another town and like the wind, like the water, like the birds, he carries them with him and sings them from New York to Tampa along Highway 95, Highway el to Slidell, Baton Rouge, Hattiesburg, Winona, San Berdu, Sulphur Springs, Cleveland, Rochester, buffalo, Ann Arbor and Detroit. John Hammond with his guitar and a slide, a harmonica and a voice that can make a sound like a whole train going by at night or like he's tryin not to wake the baby. The road, the song, one is plugged into the other and they are both plugged into John Hammond and it's the same thing, it's the same thing.

Tom Waits



Although it kicks off with the first (and only) song John Hammond has ever written, Ready for Love is a worthy and unusually varied follow-up to the surprise success of 2001's Wicked Grin. It would have been easy and possibly expected for Hammond to churn out another album of Tom Waits songs to capitalize on the unanticipated momentum created by Wicked Grin. After all, at age 60, considering he's been chipping away at his craft for the past 40 years, Hammond has certainly earned the right to coast on some better-late-than-never success. And the Waits catalog is bursting with plenty more gems perfect for the singer/guitarist to wrap his throaty, emotional blues voice around. But even though two more Waits songs appear, this is far from either a rehash of Hammond's last disc, or another professionally done but near-carbon-copy set of the sort he's been releasing for the last 20 years. Rather, Hammond pushes his envelope to include classic country, cocktail jazz, and even an obscure Rolling Stones cover. It's hard to say how much influence producer/Los Lobos mainstay David Hidalgo had on selecting these tunes, but since two are rescued from his obscure 1999 Houndog side project, it's likely he was a significant factor. Certainly Hammond's country direction, exemplified by versions of "Color of the Blues" and "Just One More" - both recorded by George Jones - and Freddie Hart's "Easy Lovin'," are this disc's most drastic departures in style. But, although they stay faithful to the originals, the tracks fit snugly with the rest of the bluesy fare. Hammond's oozy, swampy take on Willie Dixon's "The Same Thing" is one of the best, most menacing covers of the classic, and a sly, loungy version of Billie Holiday's swinging "Come Love" is one of the collection's playful highlights. "Low Side of the Road," with its clanky, groaning percussion, is straight out of the Waits stylebook, and even the low-key rockin' of the Elvis/Little Richard/Drifters rock & roll oldie "Money Honey" exudes a slightly ominous vibe. "Crown Vic," the sole original, is a John Lee Hooker-variety slow boogie greased with hipster lyrics similar to what Tom Waits - who also penned the liner notes - might write. By not taking the easy way out, Ready for Love is a successful experiment that nudges at John Hammond's limitations while satisfying his recently acquired, larger fan base. It's a tricky balancing act, but he pulls it off in typical stylish fashion.

Hal Horowitz - All Music Guide
© 1992 - 2003 AEC One Stop Group, Inc.



It can be dangerous for a blues artist to cross genres. Purists scorn those that do, and fans outside the blues are usually baffled about where the artist is coming from. But if the move further enhances the blues player's image -- as the string-laden, Grammy-winning "The Thrill Is Gone" did for B.B. King in 1970 -- it can be artistically rewarding and financially lucrative. So it was with John Hammond's set of Tom Waits tunes, Wicked Grin, which brought both critical acclaim and a larger audience. Now Hammond is again pushing the boundaries of the blues with Ready for Love, which was produced by David Hidalgo of Los Lobos. The band members come from Smashing Pumpkins (drummer Stephen Hodges), the Fabulous Thunderbirds (bassist Marty Ballou), the Sir Douglas Quintet (keyboardist Augie Myers), Golden Earring (guitarist Frank Carillo), and fiddle player Soozie Tyrell (a guest artist with the E Street Band). The tunes are drawn from a mixed bag of songwriters: Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, George Jones, Freddie Hart, Willie Dixon, Waits, and Hidalgo. Hammond is so liberated by this chance to move beyond the country blues that he even wrote his first tune for this set, the cruising roots rocker "Crown Vic." What holds this stew of sources together is Hammond's solid blues base. The Stones' "Spider and the Fly" is interpreted as a rugged roadhouse blues, with Hammond's harmonica spinning a web of roots through it. Hammond gives George Jones's heartbreakingly simple "Color of the Blues" a reading close to the original, with Tyrell's twangy fiddle further digging into the country sound. But the revelation is in listening to Hammond's take on George Jones in the same set with his gritty version of Waits's "Gin Soaked Boy." The songs are dark and light takes on the same loneliness, and Hammond uses them to tell the whole story. It's a fresh outlook in today's segmented musical world but one almost as old as the history of popular music, reflecting the open-minded tastes of young radio listeners from the '50s through the '70s.

Roberta Penn - Barnes and Noble



After 40 years of playing traditional blues, John Hammond reinvented himself at age 59 and began his current winning streak by trading his acoustic guitars for an armful of Tom Waits songs, resulting in 2001's exceptional Wicked Grin. Hammond stays plugged-in on Ready for Love, but taps a diverse group of songwriters that includes Waits, Willie Dixon, Los Lobos's David Hidalgo, George Jones, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and country crooner Freddie Hart.

His voice - as full of character as weathered tarpaper on a Delta shack roof--does wonders with numbers like Hart's "Easy Lovin'," Billie Holiday's "Comes Love," and a slow, creep-show take on Dixon's "Same Thing" with a Hammond guitar solo that's deliberate perfection. The CD kicks off with "Crown Vic," a John Lee Hooker-inspired winner that's the second number Hammond's penned and recorded himself (the first was "Baby, Won't You Tell Me" from his 1964 sophomore album, Big City Blues). Hidalgo does double duty as producer and guitarist, infusing the album with the same spare, blues-drenched character that he brought to his Latin Playboys and Houndog projects. He and guitarist Frank Cirillo also provide the disc's sonic signature: intertwining, tremolo-soaked vintage guitar tones that help even the contemporary numbers sound like classics.

Ted Drozdowski - Amazon.com



Hammond, the veteran bluesman whose career gained momentum with 2001's Wicked Grin, lays his throaty drawl over boogie-lite versions of songs by Tom Waits, George Jones and the Stones, among others. But even when he picks up the pace, he sounds a little weary.

From RS 919, April 3, 2003
© Copyright 2003 RollingStone.com
 

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