MEDIA REVIEWS
ALBUMS
Motörhead
The World Is Yours
Motörhead Records
The infamous metal institution known as
Motörhead celebrated its 35th anniversary by
releasing their 20th album, The World is Yours.
It’s a tough and ballsy biker record that sticks
to the Motörhead formula but with a renewed
sense of vitality and mean intensity. With
iconic bassist and vocalist Lemmy Kilmister at
the helm, Motörhead blurs the lines between
rock ’n’ roll, modern metal, and punk while
keeping a leather-jacketed swagger and a
middle finger aimed at authority and proper
society. This incarnation of Motörhead features
Phil Campbell on guitar and Mikkey Dee on
drums playing with fierce authority, while the
65-year-old Lemmy rocks the vocal mic with
a maturity and single-minded vision that few
younger frontmen possess. Producer Cameron
Webb gives this record a clear, live-in-the-studio
feel, and lets Phil Campbell loose with inspired
wah solos galore. Fat-free blues-rock soloing,
killer vibrato, Chuck Berry double-stops, and
nasty chord work right out of the ’70s keeps
this band grounded in the old-school rock
tradition. Top cuts include “Waiting for the
Snake,” “Bye Bye Bitch,” and the ominous
“Brotherhood of Man.” —Oscar Jordan
tommy
emmanuel,
C.G.P.
Little by Little
Favored Nations
From the opening notes of “Halfway Home,”
Tommy Emmanuel bowls you over with his
amazing technique and his ability to craft a melody that sticks in your head. Little by Little is an
ambitious double album full of everything from
delicate Beatles-inspired fingerpicking to the
barnburning instrumentals that have become
a cornerstone of his live shows. On a masterful
arrangement of Carole King’s “Tapestry,” Doyle
Dykes joins Emmanuel for an inspired version
of the ’70s classic. Relying on his arsenal of
Maton, Collings, Larrivee, and Gibson guitars,
Emmanuel knows how to pick just the right axe
for the tune. For the vocal version of the jazz
standard “Moon River,” he chooses a vintage
Gretsch Synchromatic to cop an old-school jazz
vibe. Between the two discs there are some common threads. The title track, “Haba Na Haba”
(Swahili for “Little by Little”) is given an instrumental treatment on the first disc while the
second disc adds Pam Rose and Victor Wooten
for a funky vocal version. The tracks that stand
out most are the solo pieces where Emmanuel
lets his musical spirit flow freely. “Mountains
of Illinois,” written by fellow Nashville super-picker Pat Bergeson, is a bluesy ballad that is
equal parts Chet Atkins and Joe Pass. With so
many moving parts on this album, from different guests to genres, Emmanuel has created one
of the most accessible albums of his career, one
that’s sure to inspire other guitarists to drop the
pick more often. —Jason Shadrick
Johnny Cash
Bootleg, Volume 2: From
Memphis to Hollywood
Columbia/Legacy
Bootleg, Volume 2: From Memphis to Hollywood
takes you back to the ’50s and ’60s, when
Cash lived in the studio. During these two
decades, he released 20 studio albums producing plenty of B-sides, demos, unreleased songs,
and alternative takes filling two CDs—1950s
and 1960s—with 57 songs, including 16
never-heard recordings.
The first disc showcases a young, impres-
sionable Cash recording gospel (“Belshazzar”),
rockabilly (“You’re My Baby”—later made
famous by Roy Orbison), heartbroken blues
(“When I Think of You”), and country
(“Brakeman’s Blues”—a Jimmie Rodgers
cover) in a style that demonstrates great
empathy for the genre rather than a reliance
on his own charismatic persona—a talent he
demonstrated in later recordings, particularly
his American albums. The 1960s disc oozes
with Cash’s room-filling, baritone swagger par-
ticularly on the hilarious “Foolish Questions,”
the poignant “Five Minutes to Live,” the self-
deprecating “The Losing Kind” and the slow,
prison ballad “Send a Picture of Mother.”
The boom-chick-a-boom rhythm associated
with Cash, guitarist Luther Perkins, and bass-
ist Marshall Grant, is on parade throughout
both discs and the musical transitions Cash
endures. Production gets slicker on the second
disc thanks to Columbia Records and producer
Don Law. But the first one—loaded with
14 demos—has a garage-recording charm,
complete with Sun Studio and Sam Phillips’
signature reverb. The 1950s disc starts with
a 15-minute segment from a KWEM radio
program—complete with Cash selling home
improvement goods—that aired in May 1955.
While not nearly as accessible as other posthumous hit-laden collections, Bootleg, Volume
2: From Memphis to Hollywood captures a historically important musical and transformation
of a young Cash from his frenetically ragged
roots to one of American music’s most important lyrical philosophers. —Chris Kies
BOOK
Q on
Producing
By Quincy Jones
with Bill Gibson
Hal Leonard
$34.99
Quincy Jones needs no introduction, but
it’s worth pointing out that he was almost
pigeonholed out of the chance to produce
Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall album, which,
of course, preceded Thriller and Bad in what
would become the most successful trio of
albums of all time by any measure. Jones was
respected for his touch with jazz, TV, and film
in 1978, but hadn’t yet achieved big success
in mainstream pop-music production. This
book dissects the approaches he used to turn
that corner, which are essentially the same
principles that guided him alongside greats like
Ray Charles, Count Basie, and Frank Sinatra,
and continue to guide him today.
The 302-page book offers plenty of practical Q wisdom through his own words, those
of co-writer Bill Gibson and those of a long list
of notable collaborators like Phil Ramone and
Paul Jackson, Jr. Topics covered include: chord
and instrument voicings, the pocket, the music
business, the rewards of loyalty, and the art of
respecting genres. There are no deep-dive tips,
unfortunately, but the summation of so much
general Q advice amounts to a valuable collection of musical knowledge.
The hardbound book also comes with
a DVD containing more than an hour of
Gibson interviewing Jones. Dedication and
musical genius aren’t transferable through a
book and a DVD, but this first volume in
what is to be a series on producing from Hal
Leonard does good job of examining what
Jones brings to the table. —Joe Coffey
