Friendship between Eric Clapton and legendary Tulsa blues song writer and guitarist J.J. Cale dates since early '70s, when Eric recorded covers of the songs “After Midnight” and “Cocaine”, even before Cale recorded his first album, Naturally, in 1971.
Cale established a friendship with Clapton, releasing a collaborative album, The Road to Escondido, in 2006. Cale's music was always inspiring Clapton, he even called Cale one of the most important artists in the history of rock. Clapton used to say that music of J.J. helped him to survive the dark period of hid life in the Seventies.
Clapton said: "I went into that dark period in my life and was just absent, and about that time some of JJ's early stuff was coming out. I definitely was trying to shake off this guitar legend thing, which I thought was so plebeian. It was such a pedestrian way of looking at things. I didn't want anything to do with that. I didn't want anything to do with this heavy metal s--- that was going on. I can't stand the noise. I wanted to kind of see the virtuosity, I wanted to get back to fundamentals, and he was a fundamentalist for sure. And so he was my beacon."
When J.J. Cale died on July 26, 2013, during a 12-hour flight to Cale's funeral Clapton came up with the idea for the 16-song "The Breeze: An Appreciation of JJ Cale" album.
He invited to studio his musical friends, Willie Nelson, Tom Petty, Mark Knopfler and John Mayer, drummer Jim Keltner and bassist Nathan East to record 16 songs to memorize his idol and friend J.J. Cale. One of the most iimportant guitar albums of 2014 was released a year after J.J. death on 29th of July, 2014 through Bushbranch / Surfdog label.
TRACKLIST
1. Call Me the Breeze 3:07
2. Rock and Roll Records (feat. Tom Petty) 2:19
3. Someday (feat. Mark Knopfler) 3:48
4. Lies (feat. John Mayer) 3:07
5. Sensitive Kind (feat. Don White) 5:17
6. Cajun Moon 2:28
7. Magnolia (feat. John Mayer) 3:42
8. I Got the Same Old Blues (feat. Tom Petty) 3:03
9. Songbird (feat. Willie Nelson) 2:56
10. Since You Said Goodbye 3:01
11. I'll Be There (If You Ever Want Me) (feat. Don White) 2:37
12. The Old Man and Me (feat. Tom Petty) 2:56
13. Train to Nowhere (feat. Mark Knopfler and Don White) 4:51
14. Starbound (feat. Willie Nelson and Derek Trucks) 2:03
15. Don't Wait (feat. John Mayer) 2:47
16. Crying Eyes (feat. Christine Lakeland and Derek Trucks) 3:32
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