For only his third ever solo album – and his first since 1992’s Main Offender – the Stones axe-man Keith Richards has recruited an impressive roster of luminaries. They include drummer Steve Jordan (who co-produces), guitarist Waddy Wachtel and keyboardist Ivan Neville (of the New Orleans brothers fame).
The swampy, acoustic blues of the short, opening title track isn’t really indicative of what’s to follow. A full rhythm section cuts loose on the Stones-like ‘Heartstopper’ an the similarly Jagger-esque ‘Amnesia’, while that familiar Richards Telecaster-fuelled riffage is well in evidence on recent single ‘Trouble’, another rocking tune that could comfortably grace a Stones live set. He covers a fair bit of ground, musically speaking; ‘Love Overdue’ is a skanking reggae tune, while he offers a decent take on the evergreen ‘Goodnight Irene’, which isn’t a million miles away from Ry Cooder’s celebrated Chicken Skin Music version.
There’s a certain rough charm to Richards’ singing. The Chuck Berry-influenced uptempo ‘Blues In The Morning’ – featuring Bobby Keys on sax – recalls The Stones’ Sticky Fingers Muscle Shoals sessions (think ‘Johnny B Good’ meets ‘Brown Sugar’.) And if he sounds a bit like Mark Knopfler after smoking forty fags on the sultry ‘Illusion’, the effect is balanced by his duetting, and songwriting, partner Norah Jones and her sweeter-than-molasses voice.
Legendary Memphis keyboardist (and regular Neil Young sidekick) Spooner Oldham appears on the soulful ballad, ‘Lover’s Plea’, a tune you could easily imagine appearing on Exile on Main Street. Nothing earth-shattering here, in other words, but it’s solid stuff.