„Als Sängerin war sie schon immer über jeden Zweifel erhaben. Willis liest Emotionen mit der Schärfe einer Kamera, die auch kaum vermutete Nuancen und Regungen einfriert. Doch während sie früher naturgemäß vor allem von ungestümer Energie lebte, so balanciert sie jetzt bewahrte Leidenschaft und gewonnene Reife wohldosiert aus. Poppige Obertöne (Heavenbound) stehen ihr dabei ebenso gut wie bluesige Untertöne (Got A Feelin´ For Ya).“ (Rolling Stone. 4 Sterne)

"Dieser bunt zusammengewürfelte Haufen produziert einen Sound, wie man sich ihn homogener kaum vorstellen kann. Alles fließt. Assoziationen gibt's zuhauf: Mal fühlt man sich an "Chris & Carla" erinnert, dann an die besten Momente von Nick Cave. Kevin Ayers scheint das Alter ego von Tom Redecker zu sein, und mitunter ertappt man sich sogar bei Hooklines, wie sie "Weather Report" nicht besser hätten transportieren können. Nirgends hat man jedoch den Eindruck von Epigonentum - im Gegenteil. Der Band gelingt es mühelos, dem Ganzen ihren persönlichen Stempel aufzudrücken.
Tom Redeckers stets leicht verschleppter und hypnotisierender Gesang ist das "i-Tüpfelchen" einer rundum gelungenen Produktion. Der überwiegend schwebende Sound klatscht einem die Melancholie nur so um die Ohren. Magisch! Aus deutscher Sicht ist es zweifellos das bisherige Highlight des Jahres. Nimmt es Wunder, daß selbst Nel Young sich mit gesprochener Lyrik ("Morro de la Cruz") hat ausleihen lassen? Ganz und gar nicht!" (Heinz W. Arndt, NRZ vom 16.9.99)

Ever since the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia passed away in 1995, a number of records featuring his trademark guitar stylings have emerged from the woodwork. Bruce Hornsby, David Grisman, Howard Wales and scores of other collaborators have all dug out something they did with the mighty Captain Trips. Matthew Kelly and Kingfish recently joined the fold, unearthing a nugget from 1973 called Ridin' High.

Of course, Kingfish has a long-standing association with the Dead. Kelly, an exceptional blues harpist, guitarist and songwriter, was, along with the Dead's Bob Weir, a founding member of Ratdog, a member of Bobby and The Midnites (another Weir project from the 70s/80s), and appeared and/or recorded with the Dead throughout their long and strange trip. Weir actually became a member of Kingfish during the Dead's mid-70s hiatus and stayed on for two years.

Over the years, Kelly has kept the Kingfish flame somewhat alive with various incarnations and special guests. Upon Garcia's departure to the great hereafter, Kelly was inspired to get the ball rolling once again. On the eve of Garcia's passing, Kelly wrote and performed a simple little ditty called Every Little Light which he dedicated to the late guitarist. Soon after, Kelly left Ratdog and started work on a project that would blossom into the first Kingfish studio album in over twenty years, Sundown On The Forest.

Sundown On The Forest is an all-star congregation awash in a mixture of blues, reggae, country, psychedelia and nostalgia. It is, for the most part, representative of the sounds that have been streaming out of the Bay Area since the Summer of Love. Along with Garcia and Weir, Kelly enlisted the aid of several singers, songwriters and musicians -- mostly members of the band at one time or another during its scattered existence.

The CD opens with Hurt Enough, a bouncy, reggae-flavored romp that features the lead vocals of Maria Muldaur's daughter, Jenni. There's nothing particularly ground-breaking here, but the song is highlighted by some tasty exchanges, notably by guitarist Barry Sless.

The title track, this time with Danny Rio at the vocal helm, is a song dedicated to Julia Butterfly Hill, a woman who has been living in a Northern California tree for the past two years and refuses to climb down. The jazzy/Steely Dan guitar lines weave intricately within the song's environmentally- charged theme. It Don't Take Much and Burning In My Heart follow on a safe and modest course. The former features Kelly on the lead vocal while the latter (with Muldaur) spotlights original Kingfish guitarist, Robbie Hoddinott. For the uninitiated, these first four tracks are nothing to lose sleep over, but Kingfish fans will undoubtedly get their long-awaited fix.

The aforementioned Ridin' High is an interesting blend of old and new. Back in the early 70s, Bill Cutler (whose brother John engineered and co-produced some of the Dead's latter-day recordings) wrote and sang the song, and somehow managed to get some of San Francisco's hottest musicians to back him up. This included members of Kingfish as well as Jerry Garcia. For the new CD, Kelly restored the song, adding more guitar, keyboards and vocals in the process. Although the end result is one of the few non-Dead songs featuring both Garcia and Weir, it sounds more like something that would be floundering in contemporary country music circles.

The best of the lot has to be Paddie Cufflinks. A roving Dead-like number, this could very well be one of the finest tunes Weir has ever sang without the Dead. Percussionist James A. Nelson -- who co-wrote the song -- also gives the rhythm some extra sauce by tapping on an anvil. Good-bye, So Long is a throw-away that sort of rollicks through to nowhere while the version of Every Little Thing lacks the intimate warmth Kelly exhibited during his performances with Ratdog.

Eyes Of The Night is another Muldaur/reggae groove injected with a squirming lead by Hiddinott and backed by such Bay Area notables as the Zeros' Bobby Vega And Steve Kimock. Without taking anything away from Hiddinott, it's a shame that Kimock is delegated to rhythm guitar on this and two other tracks he appears on. His playing with the Other Ones in 1998, and more recently with Phil and Friends (or Phriends), makes him one of the few guitarists able to amply fill the shoes of the dearly departed Garcia.

Covers of Bob Dylan's It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry, Arthur Crudup's My Baby Left Me, Bobby Charles' Tennessee Blues" and Country Joe McDonald's Starship Ride fill out the album whole-heartedly. There's loads of congenial guitar lines from Sless -- greasy picking to elegant pedal steel -- as well as some bluesy harmonica work from the man himself -- Matthew Kelly.

As a fan of the Grateful Dead and their extended family, I can't rate Sundown On The Forest as one of my favorites. There are a few bright moments and some enticing interludes, but the cautious route Kelly takes doesn't really challenge the ears or provoke the senses. Like much that is emerging from the Bay Area these days, Sundown On The Forest is merely a throwback to days gone by. And as the Garcia vault is slowly plundered, I might be more inclined to follow Phil Lesh as he mounts a tour with yet another group of "friends" determined to ascend to the next level.

Shawn Perry

(This review originally appeared on the Classic Rock channel of about.com, Spring 1999)

Charles Lloyd's sixth ECM album is both a departure and a homecoming for the Memphis-born and California-based tenorist, introducing new music and revisiting archive favourites (including the epic "Forest Flower"), and featuring an all-star line-up. With his "Scandinavian" band currently on hold,this is Lloyd's first all-American album in a long while - Dave Holland qualifies as an honorary American by now - with all the differences of cultural emphasis that this implies. ECM veteran John Abercrombie and legendary drummer Billy Higgins are in great form throughout as they lock in with Lloyd to tackle material ranging from Billy Strayhorn's "A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing" to the Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach-penned "God Give Me Strength" or dig deep into the roots music of the "Island Blues Suite".

"Put this CD in your player and you´ll want to be out driving, top down on a small southern road, stop in New Orleans, and wind up with a few good friends around a camp fire on a clear night with the crickets providing backup for the slow, reflective songs.
Chris and the musicians he has gathered around him capture your attention with the intro notes of the first song, and never let you off the hook. His raspy yet gentle voice is the perfect instrument with which to tell stories of a fruit and vegetable vendor in the streets of New Orleans, a conversation about life from different perspectives, a disillusioned lover, and of various experiences you´re bound to have. There are enough twists even in the recurring theme of love gone bad that either put a smile on my face or surprised me... I won´t get into quoting my favorite lines as we have space limitations here, and I want you to be surprised as well.
Four of the eleven songs are by other writers, but with his interpretations, Smither makes them his own.
The production of the music creates the perfect mood for the lyrics. The brass sounds transport you directly to Bourbon Street, while the accordion makes your feet want to spin in a TexMex dance hall. Still, it never gets in the way of Chris´ singing and excellent guitar playing, but frames them to create multi-level pictures you won´t get tired of listening to.
If you like melodic intelligent blues and its variations, this one should be at the top of your list to add to your collection." (Guntram Gudowius, The Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange)

"The craggy-voice Prine has been known to sing a duet or two in his time -- but who would have imagined that a whole album's worth would be SO WONDERFUL? Joined by the likes of Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Patty Loveless and Connie Smith, Prine has just put out what may be my favorite country album of the year... The song selection is flawless, ranging from straight-ahead weepers like Don Everley's "So Sad" or Felice Bryant's "We Could," to goofy oldies like "The Jet Set" and "Milwaukee Here I Come". The arrangements -- particularly the pedal steel by Dan Dugmore -- are picture perfect; understated and expressive but wholly in service of the lyrics. Prine proves a point he's made many times over the years, that sometimes the secret to good singing is just keeping thing simple. In his unpretentious manner, Prine's ability to connect with the nine women co-starring on here is phenomenal. The three numbers with Iris DeMent are standouts: I had kind of let DeMent drift off my radar the last few years, but it was a real treat hearing the simplicity and sincerity of her vocals again -- and her delivery on the goofy, nudge-nudge wink-wink of the title track (the only Prine original on the album...) is absolutely adorable. Another eyebrow-raiser is the inclusion of two tracks with Melba Montgomery, an awesome old-timer who I've been wondering "whatever happened to her?" about for a while... The only sour notes on here are with Celtic diva, Dolores Keane, who has become inexplicably stuffy in the last few years... But really, I have no complaints -- in fact, I can't get this disc out of my stereo! And why would I want to?"

The people of the world really divide into two groups. Those who sincerely love country music and those who passionately despise it. There is no middle ground. Often the disparity between the groups goes so far that people who don’t like it feel culturally superior and even empowered to look down at their country-loving brethren as hicks and hee-haws. People who like it really don’t care. Sociologically, country music is indeed an American musical genre favored by the working class. They don’t play much country in the Hamptons and it’s unlikely that you’ll hear real twang coming from expensive little BMWs. Country music lovers really don’t care. They’re the Chevro-let set and they have fun. They look down their nose at money and, anyway, they have big, high-up 4x4 pick-ups with snow plows that cost even more than the beamers and they don’t much care for Celin Dion neither. Thanks very much.

Things get really weird when you start sub-dividing country music fans into the two major camps, the Nashville establishment and the Alt Country (alternative country) camp, home of the renegades, the outsiders, country outlaws and mavericks. They’re in some ways similar, yet different as night and day. No matter what, if you hate country, stay away from this record. We can’t reform you. On the other hand, country lovers rejoice! John Prine fans, be careful. This is no "Illegal Smile" or the usual fare you might expect from Prine. This one could be "too country" for the folkies who consider singer/songwriter Prine one of them. Here he sings his own favorite country songs with lady friends (yes, real country songs).

Prine says, "I really like duets. There’s something about two people singing to each other or about each other and finally with each other that sounds really good to me. I made a list of my favorite girl singers and the first nine I called said ‘yes’…" (He didn’t say how many more he called then who turned him down, but he apparently settled for the nine). So, a record of country duets it is, with Iris DeMent , Connie Smith, Lucinda Williams, Trisha Yearwood, Melba Montgomery, Emmylou Harris, Dolores Keane, Patty Loveless, Fiona Prine, Dolores Keane, and Melba Montgomery. Clearly he prefers his duets with women,especially Iris DeMent, his evident favorite, who partners on 25% of the songs.

There are a few real gems here, especially "(We’re Not) The Jet Set" and "In Spite of Ourselves" with Iris DeMent, "Wedding Bells/Let’s Turn back The Years" with Lucinda Williams and "I Know One" with Emmilou Harris. "(We’re Not) The Jet Set" is not just a cool tune, but it humorously illustrates the divide between the country music Americans and the cultural elite. The refrain says, "We’re not the jet set. We’re the old Chevro-let set. But ain’t we got fun". The title cut "In Spite of Ourselves", the only John Prine composition on the album, is classic Prine. Socio-satirical, witty, funny, simple rhymes about real life, but with a twist. Sort of like mainstream Nashville country turned upside down, done subversive with a sly little edge. Then again, there are irritating songs in between on this album that make me cringe and want to climb the wall were it not for the Fast-Forward button. But, then again, people who love the Bakersfield country sound and the Ernest Tubb Record shop will slap me just for saying that. But hey… I can’t help it, I only like the Alt-country…