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22/03/2004 White men sing the blues: new releases from Eric Clapton and Chris Rea
As the UK audience awaits the TV screening of the Scorsese series, there's been a flurry of new blues product, which should piggy back nicely on the rare blues programming. Today sees the release of Me and Mr Johnson by Eric Clapton, and The Blue Jukebox, by Chris Rea. Guitar virtuoso Clapton is best represented in my collection by the 1960s classic, Bluesbreakers, by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers: no half decent music collection should be without this album, the central document of blues rock. Clapton is, of course, revered by rockpop fans of a certain age: he can fill the 4,000-seater Albert Hall many nights over. But little that Eric/God has done since his Bluesbreakers days has much interest for me: the 1970s poprock releases, in particular, are entirely forgettable. I'll be trying this album, though: the rare chance to hear one of the great white boy blues missionaries interpreting the canon of one of the founders of the genre is far too good to miss. Chris Rea, gravel-voiced Teessider, is known as a singer-songwriter, though his MOR catalogue manages to pass me by. Since recovering from a serious illness, Rea appears to have found a new purpose - as a born-again country bluesman. Under the umbrella of his own new specialist label, Jazzee Blue, Rea released a double CD, Dancing down the Stony Road, in 2002. I've tried to like it, but can't get past the memory of Rea's rock crooner heritage, exemplified by songs like Driving Home for Xmas. He's working hard at his project, touring to support today's release of The Blue Jukebox, which should cement Rea's growing reputation as a blues-lite crossover artist. Can white men sing the blues? Silly (racist) question. A better question might be: should they bother? In 2004? The market will decide. Gerry Smith
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