Keith Richards – Crosseyed Heart (Mindless Records)
contributing lead vocals, his always stellar guitar, bass, piano and various keyboards. The album starts out with a short,
Keith Richards has spent a lifetime immersed in making music and his third solo effort highlights the many influences he brings to bear. It’s also indicative of where he’s at after 50 years with the Stones, and playing with innumerable greats along the way. He can rock out when he wants to, but the more prevalent vibe is moody, thoughtful songs about love, loss of same and the memories retained.
As he says in the liner notes,
“These songs are like plays…Lost love, that emotion is particularly strong. You want to evoke the feeling without being too specific…it’s the memory of a feeling rather than any specific event.” That said, Richards always keeps
it interesting. Crosseyed Heart’s strength is its variety. The fifteen tracks run the gamut, from forceful and feisty to subdued and sober, covering a host of styles/genres. They grow on you with every listen. With the Stones on an extended
hiatus from the studio, Richards was at loose ends with the genesis of dozens of songs in his head. The trouble was getting his band from his two long-ago solo efforts – The X-pensive Winos – together. Solution? He and drummer/producer/ co-writer Steve Jordan laid down the basic tracks and added the necessary embellishments of their mates and other guests over time. Richards shoulders most of the load,
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simple nod to the delta blues that Richards embraced young and cut his teeth on. The title track is just his gravelly vocals and an acoustic guitar, just under two minutes of bliss that immediately launches into a couple of rockers – the driving Heartstopper and Amnesia, a snarling, hook-laden mover whose lyrics could speak of chunks of Keef’s life. The song features his great friend, and Stones mainstay, Bobby Keyes on saxophone, recorded before his passing in December 2014. Robbed Blind is wistfully
reminiscent of past wrongdoings. It features lovely pedal steel from Spooner Oldham and is the first of four standout songs (Suspicion, Just a Gift and Illusion, a great duet with
MUSIC REVIEW
BILL MACPHERSON
Norah Jones, are the others) that typify Richard’s current song writing bent and personal state of mind and soul. He’s reflective, mellowed, learned in life and love. But also not ready to be buttonholed either. Trouble sounds like vintage
Stones, Gregory Isaac’s Love Overdue is given a reggae feel with sweet horns - it works nicely - and Nothing on Me is typical Richards. He’s defiant and unrepentant, swaggeringly above it all.
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BOUNDER MAGAZINE 13
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