Chris Rea: ‘Blue Guitars’

I have to admit that I have never held a project in my hands like this one. I do have boxed sets collecting an artist's entire output that can't match this one, I have label compilations that don't reach the number of tunes on this collection and I have some lavishly-produced boxes that somehow don't impress as much as this one does.

Hell, the entire background to this boxed set is about as unique as they come.

I don't know if you are familiar with Chris Rea, but even if you are, you might have dismissed him as that guy who had a whole bunch of hits way back when and re-released them here and there, often also in new clothes. He never left my radar, but to be quite honest, I hardly listened to his stuff anymore. I had moved on musically, and left Chris Rea behind.

Then he became sick, very sick, and my radar started blinking. How weird and morbid is that?

What happened was that after having fought with stomach problems for years, Chris Rea was diagnosed with pancreatitis and for a while his life was hanging in the balance as his pancreas and parts of his intestines had to be removed. I remember reading about his serious illnesses in the summer of 2000, Rea being rushed to the hospital and undergoing the seventh operation since 1994, by far the most serious one. Then, in 2001, he lost his pancreas, duodenum, and gall bladder. I saw photos which depicted someone having stared death in the face and I started to keep track of his astonishing return to the music scene, bouncing back with barely a step lost.

In a later interview on Manchester Online, Chris Rea summarized the time since that operation:

It's tough, [Chris Rea] says. "I train very hard to keep everything going as much as possible. I do a lot of weight training to keep my muscles the right size. I don't want big guy muscles but because the pancreas converts so many things into the whole life blood of your body, when you don't have one lots of things go missing. In order to maintain muscle ratio, I have to do 50 press-ups to your 10, otherwise I'd start wasting away. And I'm type one diabetic. And certain foods can give me the effects of food poisoning very easily. What else? Oh yeah, my circulation's not good. So I train about five times a week. I hate it," he chuckles.

And then, if you can believe it, the man started recording again. And I started buying and listening again.

His most recent project is the one that is the most astonishing and, if we are to believe him, his final one under his own name.

After he had fallen severely ill, he promised his family that he "wasn't going to chase the company line anymore." But he ended up chasing his own line and now that he has completed his last project under his own name, he's on a promise that he won't do this type of thing again in terms of how he did it.

What Rea did was look for his musical roots, the Blues, and after having read countless books on the subject (he cites Bill Wyman's excellent "Blues Odyssey" as original inspiration), he started recording his very own personal history of it, emphasizing the connections popular styles of today have to the Blues. The result is not really a historical overview but a highly personal interpretation of where the Blues came from, where it went and how today just about everything musical is related to it.

"Blue Guitars", the final result of 18 months of 12/7 workdays, includes eleven CDs featuring 130 new songs, a DVD ("Dancing Down Stony Road") and a book including thirty reproductions of Chris Rea's art, giving a visual representation of each style of blues he experimented with.

The discs, entitled "Beginnings (1), Country Blues (2), Louisiana and New Orleans (3), Electric Memphis Blues (4), Texas Blues (5), Chicago Blues (6), Blues Ballads (7), Gospel Soul Blues and Motown (8), Celtic and Irish Blues (9); Latin Blues (10) and 60's and 70's (11)" present 137 original songs culled from the multitude Rea wrote for this project and despite the immediate und understandable thought of any listener that a collection such as this must be boring, repetitive and just too much of a good thing, the contrary is true. This is a truly wonderful boxed set.

Rea follows the Blues from its origins in Africa (opening the interview section of the accompanying book, there's an eerie painting depicting a slave in ball and chain) through its journey to the Americas, its development and blending with other styles there and to its modern variants found just about all over the place.

I have so many favourite tunes on each one of these 11 CDs, so I won't list any here, but the CD entitled "Electric Memphis Blues" is the one in most constant rotation around here. The music is always spot on - intensive, lush, energetic, or relaxed when needed - and the production values as well as the skills of the enlisted musicians, many of them regulars on Chris Rea recordings, are exceptional throughout. Best of all, because there is so much to discover here and such an abundance of intricate detail, this boxed set demands and lives up to repeated listening.

What makes this collection of songs even more interesting is that Rea also used a multitude of original instruments here, from his Italia (Blue Sparkle!), a cheap-looking something which "accidentally became slide guitar no. 1", the "Fender Resonator 'dobro style'" which he calls "tough as old bones", his "Guild Small Body " which is "tuned to low open D with tramlines for strings", to the Hofner Violin Bass, an electric sitar, a calimba, a Hammond B3.C3 organ and the various harmonicas which are also depicted, together with all the other instruments, period amps and microphones, on a two-page spread.

In the end, "Blue Guitars" gets my highest rating and is my choice for outstanding collection of 2005 and any top-ten list of boxed sets. Rea tried his best to ensure that this gem can be purchased at a reasonable price (I'm almost embarrassed to say that I paid little over 40 Euro for it) and the only neglectable downside to this boxed set is, well, the box, despite its stunning production values. The CDs housed in cardboard sleeves are better off removed from the box, as they tend to fall out constantly.

I know I shouldn't be calling my readers idiots, but if you don't get this boxed set, you are one, simply because the music is that good, the thing is as cheap as can be, and the entertainment value is second to none. Rea put his heart into this one, and it shows at each turn of the way, so do yourself a favour and give it a try before this one disappears or is repackaged.

Track Listing:

01. West Africa (Instrumental)
02. Cry for Home
03. King Who Sold His Own
04. White Man Coming
05. Where the Blues Come From
06. Lord Tell Me It Won't Be Long
07. Work Gang
08. Praise the Lord
09. Sweet Sunday
10. Sing out The Devil
11. Boss Man Cut My Chains
12. Walkin' Country Blues
13. Man Gone Missing
14. Can't Stay Blues
15. KKK Blues
16. Too Much Drinkin'
17. Catwalk Woman
18. If You've Got a Friend in Jesus
19. Head Out On the Highway
20. Wild Pony
21. Steam Train Blues
22. Going Up To Memphis
23. Somewhere Between Highway 61 and 49
24. Ticket for Chicago
25. Dance All Night Long
26. Two Days Missing Down the Viper Room
27. Who Cares If I Do
28. What Made Me Love You
29. You Got Dixie
30. One Night with You
31. Talking Bout New Orleans
32. Le Fleur De La Vie
33. Catfish Girl
34. Only a Fool Plays By the Rules
35. Baby Come Home
36. Dance Avec Moi
37. L'ete Eternal
38. Electric Guitar
39. Electric Memphis Blues
40. All Night Long
41. Born Bad
42. Let's Start Again
43. What I'm Looking For
44. Rules of Love
45. What You Done To Me
46. Hobo Love Blues
47. Pass Me By
48. Soul of My Father's Shadow
49. My Blue World Says Hello
50. Lone Rider
51. Texas Blue
52. No Wheels Blues
53. Lone Star Boogie
54. Blind Willie
55. American Way
56. Angellina
57. Truck Stop
58. Weekend Down Mexico
59. Texas Line Boogie
60. Too Big City
61. Houston Angel
62. IM Moving Up
63. Maxwell Street
64. Bob Taylor
65. He's a Whole Heap of Trouble
66. Jazzy Blue
67. Hip-Sway
68. That's The Way It Goes
69. To Get Your Love
70. Chicago Morning
71. Catwalk Woman
72. Since You've Been Gone
73. All Night Long
74. Here She Come Now
75. Last Call
76. Maybe That's All I Need To Know
77. Deep Winter Blues
78. If I Ever Get Over You
79. I Love the Rain
80. My Soul Crying Out For You
81. If That's What You Want
82. There's No One Looking
83. What Became Of You
84. My Deep Blue Ways
85. Sweet Love
86. Break another Piece of My Heart
87. Ball and Chain
88. Gospel Trail
89. Shy Boy
90. Come Change My World
91. Call on Me
92. Just In Case You Never Knew
93. Let Me In
94. I'll Be There For You
95. Pain of Loving You
96. Are You Ready
97. Celtic Blue
98. Too Far From Home
99. Til the Morning Sun Shines On My Love and Me
100. Lucky Day
101. What She Really Is
102. Wishing Well
103. Irish Blues
104. No More Sorrow
105. While I Remain
106. Last Drink
107. Til I Find My True Love's Name
108. Big White Door
109. Hey Gringo
110. Immigration Blues
111. Still Trying To Clear My Name
112. Sun Is Hot
113. Screw You and Your Deep Blue Sea
114. Nothing Seems To Matter No More
115. Sometimes
116. Lampiou
117. Keep on Dancing
118. Lucifer's Anger
119. That's How I Know It's You
120. Forever
121. You Got Soul
122. Bajan Blue
123. My Baby Told Me (Blues)
124. Got To Be Moving
125. My Baby Told Me (Gospel)
126. Heartbreaker
127. Yes I Do (Instrumental)
128. Wasted Love
129. Cool Cool Blue
130. Clarkson Blues
131. Who Killed Love
132. Never Tie Me Down
133. Mindless
134. Ain' That Just The Prettiest Thing
135. Nobody but You
136. Waiting for Love
137. Blue Morning in The Rain

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