Track Listing

1. My Gal
2. Chains of Love
3. New Lover
4. I Step
5. Stone River
6. The Problem
7. Homeless
8. Fancy Dancer
9. Rio
10. These Blues
11. Moto Mouth
12. Blues for Mama
13. Another Song

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57985 in Music
• Released on: 2004-06-07
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. This is surely the musical credo of JJ Cale as To Tulsa and Back sees him deliver yet another collection of heart-warmingly laid-back and uncluttered blues. Though half the album was recorded with his old bar-room buddies back in his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, nothing much has changed on Planet Cale. He still comes across as the world's most easy-going musician, the Baloo-the-Bear of the Blues. Perhaps a new genre, the Baloos, could be named in his honour? But this is not to say the album is simply an easy listen. Though it opens with the mooching rock'n'roll of "My Gal", a comic paean to a young lady who spends all her time getting wasted and having sex, there's also the environmentally aware "Stone River", the anti-capitalist "The Problem" and the desolate, intensely human "Blues for Mama", facing death without morbidity. There's some musical variety, occasional Latin inflections and jittery R&B, but mostly this is Cale giving the people exactly what they want, rootsy blues marked by that innately groovy vocal style and a guitar technique that was such a heavy influence on Mark Knopfler. --Dominic Wills

Customer Reviews

Cale's Back (4.5 stars)
Cale is an example of a irony who has many victims in the history of Rock and Blues, he belongs to a select group of musicians who has inspired many of the people you probably admired but never receive the recognition than those who learned from the master. In Cale's case the two most famous instances of this are, undoubtedly Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton -the latter even saying once in an interview that he felt he was the closest thing a British musician can get to Cale, and who turned huge hits out of JJ's "Cocaine" and "After Midnight.
This album finds Cale back in great form and, after several years of not visiting a studio, just as laidback and sensual in his playing as in some of his classics from years past. What you can expect is his trademark tasteful picking, solos that say everything they need to say with hardly half of the notes used by the average aspiring "guitar god," and a voice that will not necessarily stir you yet it's exactly the way to sing whatever song he's singing.
So, no surprises here, no experimenting with new sounds or genres nor the trite parade of guests who often appear and contribute more to an album's marketing but hardly anything to the songs they play in.
This is JJ Cale's unadulterated, bluesy mastery of the guitar, again accompanied by a tight band seasoned through his continued touring and playing like they are hanging out in Cale's living room. No pretense, no pyrotechnics, nothing but inspired playing some new great tunes.
For those who know Cale already, suffice to say that this is one of the albums they may be most satisfied having purchased. Listen to "New Lover," "Stone River" or "The Problem" -probably his most political song to date- for proof of that. For something somewhat different, you may try "Rio" which is touched by some Brazilian overtones but one hundred percent Cale, or "Blues for Mama" which is likely to be one of his slow and sensuous best songs in along time.

Where so many people out there lose themselves trying to change to attract new fans, Cale again chooses to remain himself, to do what he does well, and returns to form-in vintage Cale's style- without even breaking a sweat.

Amazing
After 8 years of silence Cale records his best album in many years! 13 great songs, session musicians are back, songs are beautiful and bluesy. It's just unbelievable music for 2004 and from the man who is 66 years old. Check out songs like Rio or Stone River.

JJ rides on
I may be biased but I have not yet heard anything bad or even mediocre from JJ Cale. His blend of different genres creates what many Europeans consider the "ultimate American music", which he delivers with a unique taste, guitar, voice and sound. On the new album, JJ Cale continues what he has always done: his music. No change. Thank God. I tend to prefer pieces on which JJ plays with other musicians, rather than playing all the instruments himself, and I would like to have more such songs here but this is just nidpicking. It is perfect, and I hope that he will do some more soon.