Jimmy Herring: Lifeboat
It's not often that you run across an album where pert near every song is really good. A few that come to mind would be Carole King: Tapestry, Miles Davis: Kind of Blue, Derek and the Dominoes: Layla, Beatles: Abbey Road, Weather Report: Heavy Weather, Jeff Beck: Blow by Blow, and Electric Ladyland by Jimi Hendrix. But then there's this obscure little jewel titled Lifeboat, by guitarist Jimmy Herring.
Jimmy is known for playing with "jam" bands like Widespread Panic, Aquarium Rescue Unit, Jazz is Dead, featuring members of Grateful Dead and Dixie Dregs, as well as Frogwings, where he is joined by Derek Trucks and his uncle, Butch Trucks from the Allman Brothers. He was once asked to describe his style of playing guitar and he said it was like, "puking up music." ie; catharsis. His puking is done on an instrument, but others like Jim Morrison, Eminem, and Billy Holiday regurgitated their souls with poetry and vocals.
This solo album, however, is less "open" and more highly composed. The result is unexpected and surprisingly pleasant. The thing I dig most about it is that he explores different genres, and is clearly comfortable in all of them. Three of the first four tracks are blues songs; two of which he is joined by Derek Trucks on slide. Then, in tracks 6&7, he delves into jazz. Jungle Book Overture is an entrancing homage to the Disney film. He's backed up by the Rescue Unit: Oteil Burbridge on bass, his brother Kofi playing flute and Jeff Sipe (Ashville, N.C.) on drums. They're joined by Greg Osby on soprano sax. Osby's solo sounds hauntingly like Wayne Shorter. Not a coincidence since the next track, Lost, is a Shorter composition where Osby plays tenor. Transients, the song that follows, feels like Jimmy is channeling his inner Allan Holdsworth while Grey Day is a lengthy guitar jam exhibiting Jerry Garcia's influence. He finishes with Splash, an ARU cover song that reminds me of my favorite tune on the album, the second track titled Only When It's Light. It typifies the entire album. The music is composed, yes, but the solos find a tasty improvisational groove that just comes from the heart. And that, my friends, is the, "crux of the biscuit" as Frank Zappa would say. Not the shlock of commercial pop that flows out of the music industry today....at least for the most part. No, these are 6-7 minute songs that have some meat on them. So...particularly if you're a guitarist and you'd like a taste of something interesting and diverse, you need to chomp into this album. It's tasty, quality, American-made music that you can enjoy without regret from beginning to end.
© 2016 James Kellogg. All rights reserved.
It's not often that you run across an album where pert near every song is really good. A few that come to mind would be Carole King: Tapestry, Miles Davis: Kind of Blue, Derek and the Dominoes: Layla, Beatles: Abbey Road, Weather Report: Heavy Weather, Jeff Beck: Blow by Blow, and Electric Ladyland by Jimi Hendrix. But then there's this obscure little jewel titled Lifeboat, by guitarist Jimmy Herring.
Jimmy is known for playing with "jam" bands like Widespread Panic, Aquarium Rescue Unit, Jazz is Dead, featuring members of Grateful Dead and Dixie Dregs, as well as Frogwings, where he is joined by Derek Trucks and his uncle, Butch Trucks from the Allman Brothers. He was once asked to describe his style of playing guitar and he said it was like, "puking up music." ie; catharsis. His puking is done on an instrument, but others like Jim Morrison, Eminem, and Billy Holiday regurgitated their souls with poetry and vocals.
This solo album, however, is less "open" and more highly composed. The result is unexpected and surprisingly pleasant. The thing I dig most about it is that he explores different genres, and is clearly comfortable in all of them. Three of the first four tracks are blues songs; two of which he is joined by Derek Trucks on slide. Then, in tracks 6&7, he delves into jazz. Jungle Book Overture is an entrancing homage to the Disney film. He's backed up by the Rescue Unit: Oteil Burbridge on bass, his brother Kofi playing flute and Jeff Sipe (Ashville, N.C.) on drums. They're joined by Greg Osby on soprano sax. Osby's solo sounds hauntingly like Wayne Shorter. Not a coincidence since the next track, Lost, is a Shorter composition where Osby plays tenor. Transients, the song that follows, feels like Jimmy is channeling his inner Allan Holdsworth while Grey Day is a lengthy guitar jam exhibiting Jerry Garcia's influence. He finishes with Splash, an ARU cover song that reminds me of my favorite tune on the album, the second track titled Only When It's Light. It typifies the entire album. The music is composed, yes, but the solos find a tasty improvisational groove that just comes from the heart. And that, my friends, is the, "crux of the biscuit" as Frank Zappa would say. Not the shlock of commercial pop that flows out of the music industry today....at least for the most part. No, these are 6-7 minute songs that have some meat on them. So...particularly if you're a guitarist and you'd like a taste of something interesting and diverse, you need to chomp into this album. It's tasty, quality, American-made music that you can enjoy without regret from beginning to end.
© 2016 James Kellogg. All rights reserved.