Gary Clark Jr. – Blak and Blu
By George Raphael, on 11 Nov 20, 2012
I’ve mentioned this before, and I’m sure I’ll mention this again, but rock and roll is dead. It’s sad, yes, but progress is such that we must accept it, adapt, and move on. This doesn’t make us any less nostalgic. Look at the popularity of stuff like Mad Men, hot rods, tweed suits, and Mitt Romney. We want to go back in time for, like, an hour at a time. Mad Men lasts an hour, hot rods run out of gas in about an hour, tweed suits are comfortable for about an hour and Mitt Romney was almost our president for about an hour. We don’t want to forget but for the most part move on. So I present to you your next hour or so of nostalgia, Gary Clark Jr.’s Blak and Blu.
Gary Clark Jr. has been described by music aficionados pining for the prodigal return of the great guitarists as the savior of blues, and I’ve even read he’s been dubbed the next Jimi Hendrix. These are lofty titles, and frankly, completely out of control. Don’t get me wrong, Clark is extremely competent and one of the best guys wielding an axe today, but to confine him as a Blues Jesus or as the resurrection of a Guitar God is completely unfair and listening to Blak and Blu, Clark agrees.
The album begins with “Ain’t Messin ‘Round”, an upbeat arrangement of brass instruments backed by the guitar and a very catchy hook. You’re ready to go along for the ride, but you’re immediately struck with the feeling that this is not exactly the blues you came here looking for. Well, I felt that way at least. Clark bridges the song with his trademark guitar work following the upbeat tone, which allowed me to breath a sigh of relief, but it was here I thought to myself that if this album contains no blues, I’m probably not going to be too upset.
As we moved onto the second track, “When My Train Pulls In”, the winds shifted in the opposite direction and you realize that there’s blues in here. If the name of the track didn’t clue you in, the gritty blues loop to start the song off will. The beauty is that this song isn’t formulaic, it moves how Clark wants it to and you’re gifted with some beautifully soulful guitar wailing. It’s solos like these that get people all worked up and christen him Hendrix the Second. When you catch your breath from that nearly eight minute song you’re whisked from the country blues setting and dropped into the heart of the city.
The third track, “Blak and Blu”, is an homage to the 70s urban soul sound: drum and bass, R&B vocals, and minimal guitar. It feels very similar to John Legend and The Roots’ cover homage Wake Up! from 2008, which is to say a fresh take on soul. What it also says is something more important for the album as a whole…
It is not my intention, as it never is, to do a track by track breakdown of the album, but I felt more than ever that it was important to paint a picture of how this album is arranged. The first three tracks span continents, demographics, and eras of sounds, and the rest of the album is no different. Besides blues, soul, R&B, and contemporary rock, I identified hip hop, rockabilly, funk, jam, and even sizable bits of doo wop. This is an impressive spectrum of sounds coming from one (admittedly long) album. What impresses me the most is that a guy who has received so many accolades in his young career, including a spotlight at Eric Claption’s 2010 Crossroads Guitar Festival (and seriously, if you love rock and blues and have not watched this I’m here to officially inform you that you have not yet lived), he appears insistent on proving that he is more than a one trick blues hound. I’ve mentioned it already, but there are a number of songs on this album that are not bluesy-rock and barely contain a guitar but rather showcase Clark’s ability to arrange an appealing song. He scrambles your expectations and leaves you wondering what exactly is in this delicious omelet of an album. Most surprising is “Please Come Home”, a falsetto sung doo wop track straight from Back to the Future. I swear I hear Marvin Berry in the background saying, “Chuck! Chuck, it’s Marvin. Your cousin, Marvin Berry.” All this while Clark is popping away on what sounds like a hollow body electric guitar, creating that sweet twang.
Clark warps to today with tracks like “The Life” and “You Saved Me” which are straight out of an Usher concert and are pure hip hop. Neither feels forced, which leads me to believe that Clark has a wider musical comfort zone than most musicians today. “The Life” is a carry-over from his eponymous first album, with a slightly different arrangement and smoother sound. I’m always weary when an artist reworks one of their old songs (it smacks of those Star Wars redos) or produces an awful cover (both of which I hate) but I don’t hate this one and the song itself is pretty catchy.
I’ve spent a lot of this space talking about what makes this album different from the expected, as if you reading are familiar with him. But what if you’re not? Where’s the bread and butter, you ask? Well, I already mentioned “When My Train Pulls In”, but you also need to check out “Third Stone From The Sun” for some lengthy guitar machinations which reminded me a lot of some Derek Trucks pseudo psych-rock. It’s nearly ten minutes of fret-exploration at its best. I’d also be remiss then if I didn’t mention “Bright Lights”, a track you might recognize from a hip whiskey commercial. Some slick-ass advertising exec nailed it when he or she thought this song could sell whiskey to twenty-somethings. This is another carry-over track and it too is slightly reworked. Get into these songs, and you’ll get it, and I imagine you’ll be hooked.
So, here we are, back from our erratic trip to the past. Gary Clark Jr. shows an incredible spectrum of musical prowess, and it feels so deliberate that it almost seems like Clark is proving he’s way more than just a great blues guitarist. I think he most definitely succeeds in proving that, though I will admit I hoped for more blues guitar. The tracks are masterful either way and I’m happy to think of Clark as something more than a competent facsimile of bygone guitar greats and I think you will too, so keep your mind open and dive in.
