B+The Rolling Stones
Blue & Lonesome
Interscope
Easily their rawest recording in decades, Blue & Lonesome finds the Rolling Stones happily reconnecting with the unvarnished Chicago blues that inspired the late Brian Jones to form the band in 1962.
The Stones learned to play by emulating records they heard by artists like Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Reed and Muddy Waters. Now, on this 12-track album of covers they cut together in one room in real time in three days, they're paying tribute to the music that launched them toward superstardom.
Implicit in Blue & Lonesome is the idea that these 70-something veterans have stuck around longer than their idols; the album presents them as seasoned peers of the bluesmen.
Jagger emphasizes the cracks in his voice -- the wavering tone and the frayed edges -- to give the sense of a guy who's been thoroughly beat up by life.
"You put poison in my coffee instead of milk or cream," he moans in Howlin' Wolf's "Commit a Crime," and though the narrator survived his lover's attack, he hardly emerged unscathed.
Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood deconstruct familiar guitar riffs, breaking them down into jagged shards, as in a snarling rendition of "All of Your Love," originally recorded by Magic Sam, and Lightnin' Slim's "Hoo Doo Blues."
Eric Clapton shows up for two songs, including Willie Dixon's creeping "I Can't Quit You Baby."
The Stones will probably be back with another record. Funny thing is, it probably won't sound this alive.
Hot tracks: "Hoo Doo Blues," "Commit a Crime," "I Can't Quit You Baby," the haunted "Little Rain" by Jimmy Reed
-- MIKAEL WOOD,
Los Angeles Times (TNS)
A-Various artists
The Life and Songs of Emmylou Harris
Rounder
As country great Vince Gill says of Emmylou Harris on this CD and DVD package: "She has been the most amazing teacher at showing us where this music comes from." Verily.
From her beginnings with the late Gram Parsons in the early 1970s through her storied career as a solo artist that began with 1975's Pieces of the Sky and continues on recent duet albums with Rodney Crowell, Harris has been a resolute champion of tradition and one of American music's true visionaries, with an unerring sense of artistry.
As Nashville chased the pop charts, Harris' silvery tones brought us back to our senses and helped us reconnect with American roots music. No wonder she is considered the godmother of Americana.
Songs of Emmylou Harris is in the title because she has not been a prolific songwriter. But through her heartfelt singing and the way she inhabits lyrics, Harris makes the songs her own, so much so that many think she did write them or have the original hit. No wonder, as she has superb taste: Delbert McClinton's "Two More Bottles of Wine," the Louvin Brothers' "When I Stop Dreaming," Buck Owens' aching "Together Again" and Rodney Crowell's heartbreaking "Till I Can Gain Control Again" are just a few examples.
Though Harris has developed into a fine writer (Red Dirt Girl is filled with originals), just three of the 19 selections on the CD of this multi-artist tribute concert (seven of 25 on the DVD) are hers.
The crack band is led by Buddy Miller and Don Was. Tribute albums often founder as musical experiences. This one soars.
Hot tracks: Gram Parsons' "Sin City" by Steve Earle, "Hickory Wind" by Lucinda Williams, "Two More Bottles of Wine," Sheryl Crow, "Till I Can Gain Control Again" by Alison Krauss (Krauss' exquisite take is darn near as heartrending as Harris'), "Blackhawk," a duet by Daniel Lanois and Harris
-- ELLIS WIDNER
BBrett Eldredge
Glow
Atlantic
Perhaps you have listened to the youngish country star Brett Eldredge and wondered just how, even in these polyglot, borderless, permissive times, he makes sense in Nashville. If that city has lately been dominated by bros, he is a gentleman. His twang feels digitally augmented.
Glow, his first holiday album, makes the disconnect clear. It turns out Eldredge is a disarming crooner deeply at home in front of a big band. He achieves a striking Sinatra-lite on "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and wrings "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" into a scene of pure pathos.
Hot tracks: "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," "I'll Be Home for Christmas"
-- JON CARAMANICA,
The New York Times
BKatie Melua featuring Gori Women's Choir
In Winter
BMG
Georgian singer and songwriter Katie Melua has drafted the choral ensemble from her homeland to provide distinctive polyphonic harmonies to several of the tracks here. The highlight is the yuletide favorite "Carol of the Bells" sung a cappella in its original Ukrainian incarnation, "The Little Swallow," complete with Ukrainian lyrics. They also team on gorgeous material from Georgia, Russia and Romania. Melua goes it alone for some more conventional choices such as Joni Mitchell's "River" and a handful she co-wrote.
Hot tracks: "Carol of the Bells," "O Holy Night," "River"
-- RANDY LEWIS,
Los Angeles Times (TNS)
BNeil Diamond
Acoustic Christmas
Capitol
Neil Diamond sounds like one might imagine a crooning St. Nick.
Acoustic Christmas is his fourth holiday album. It features classics like "Silent Night" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" in stripped-down fashion. There also are a few originals: "Christmas Prayers" is a particularly poignant song that speaks to the feeling of missing loved ones no longer around to celebrate. Diamond refers to them as "Christmas angels."
If you've already got Diamond's other Christmas albums in your rotation, Acoustic Christmas may seem a tad redundant.
Hot tracks: "Christmas Prayers," "Hark the Herald Angels Sing"
-- NEKESA MUMBI MOODY,
The Associated Press
Style on 12/20/2016