Track Listing

1. Danger
2. Heads In Georgia
3. Missing Person
4. When The War Is Over
5. Sporting Life Blues
6. Dead End Road
7. It's Easy
8. Hard To Thrill
9. Anyway The Wind Blows
10. Three Little Girls
11. Don't Cry Sister Cry
12. Last Will And Testament
13. Who Am I Telling You
14. Ride The River

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #587 in Music
• Released on: 2006-11-06
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
JJ Cale penned two of Eric Clapton's career-defining solo hits, "Cocaine" and "After Midnight." And since Clapton has often fashioned his persona in a WWJD manner (what would JJ do?), this collaboration is long overdue. But despite the rather slick production and long list of guest backing musicians (including four bassists, four drummers, five other guitarists, and three percussionists), The Road to Escondido is still dominated more by Cale than Clapton. The relatively reticent Okie wrote 11 of the 14 tracks, and it's his low-key soufflé of blues, jazz, and country that shapes and directs the disc's tone, with Clapton along for the ride. The opening "Danger" sets the dusky mood as the duo rides a typical Cale swamp groove that gives way to a tightly wound Slowhand solo. They trade lead vocals on a lovely version of the after-hours jazz blues classic "Sporting Life Blues," and the ubiquitous John Mayer makes an impressive appearance on the subtle blues of "Hard to Thrill."

Clapton hasn't sounded this relaxed or involved in his own material for years. The traditionally laidback, if not quite snoozy, Cale responds with a comparatively energized performance, likely due to the high-profile company. When the two harmonize on the mid-tempo foot tapper "Anyway the Wind Blows," the result is so natural and spontaneous it's a shame these two didn't join forces earlier. On paper, it appears that Cale has the most to gain from partnering with an established superstar, but the fact is this collaboration yields Eric Clapton's most engaging and contagious roots-rock release in a long time. --Hal Horowitz

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Customer Reviews

Very very good !
I absolutely love the feel of this album. Clapton -in my opinion- has released alot of utter dross over the years.
461 Ocean Boulevard being one of his best efforts. No Reason To Cry could have been a 5 star but ended up a 3-4 after being blighted by Clapton's ability in recording some great songs for an album, only to be let down by suspect filler.
I've seen him live on numerous occasions and have always wondered "What if" after leaving every gig. What if he'd not gone down the souless, radio friendly drivel that blights most of his career output -ie, August-.
When he's good he's brilliant. When he's bad he's awful.
On this album i'm glad to say he's terrific. J.J.Cale brings the best out of him with some fine songs. Mr Cale is also a bit of a hit and miss . Again though, if he gets it right it's well worth waiting for.
This album oozes class, it meanders on through at a leisurely pace -in a good sense- and delivers with almost every track.
I really would advise you to buy this.
What steals the show on this cd is J.J.Cale's writing and Clapton's singing. Clapton's guitar playing is always great, it's the one constant in his career.

Slippers and pipe music
Eric will be 65 in about three years. When I was a boy, old-age pensioners tended to stay at home wearing slippers and smoking a pipe.

Unfortunately the words to a song on this album - "Hard to Thrill" - say it all; "Nothing really moves me any more".

This is slippers and pipe music; pleasant enough, but nothing to get worked up about. For me, it's music to play whilst pottering on the Internet - reading the news, browsing Wikipedia, writing Amazon reviews, etc.

Over Produced
Why on Earth does this project need 4 guitarists, 4 bass players, 4 drummers etc...surely Eric and J.J. can handle ALL of the guitar work by themselves? Wasn't Eric's idea to get the J.J. Cale sound and feel for this album? The fantastic sparse feel of the classic track from 'Naturally', 'Any Way the Wind Blows' is totally destroyed in the re-make here. It's so bad it will make you want to weep. Eric plays totally inappropriate solos all over the place with that horrible processed tone that he has been using for years and years..it's a crying shame...and let's not even talk about the dreadful 'Three Little Girls' (his new 'Tears from Heaven').
The album is good in places, and thank God that J.J. wrote nearly all the songs, but it a wasted effort as a collaboration.