The Set List

Adding Transparency To A Critical Process: Petty, Portishead and Winwood Look To the Past To Move Forward

Absence can be a tricky gambit in music, one taken in the past week by Portishead, Tom Petty’s first significant band and Steve Winwood. All three released impressive albums on April 29 with different attitudes toward past lives: Winwood is reconciling ‘70s and ‘80s personae; Mudcrutch reflects Petty’s take on a 1971-72 milieu; and Portishead discards its own history to create a take on the Nico-Dagmar Krause aesthetic with abundant industrial textures.
Portishead’s “Third,” the Brit trio’s first album in more than 10 years, is not only the most daring of the three, it may well be the most adventurous major label release of the year. Thematically dramatic and dark, with the enthralling Beth Gibbons singing about self-doubt and romance with an overriding sense of vulnerability, Portishead leaves its past in the dust. “Third” is a reinvention of a band, a second phase that occurred organically and was not forced to happen as the first phase lost artistic  or commercial currency.
That dilemma reached up and bit Winwood after his 1982-1990 reinvention as a purveyor of contemporary British blue-eyed soul and, whether planned or not, made his albums few and far between: “Nine Lives” is only his third album in 17 years, but the first to honestly connect Spencer Davis Group and Traffic with the more polished solo artist.
Winwood returned to his spot behind the keyboard after the release of 1997’s “Junction Seven.” Six years later, when String Cheese Incident’s label released his “About Time” album, which Sony later picked up, Winwood was positioned as a patriarch of the jam band scene. His handful of recent shows with Eric Clapton reconnected with the initial incarnation of the jam band universe, Blind Faith, again raising hope that Winwood connect the dots between past and present.
“Nine Lives” could use a little more organ and a couple of sax solos veer too close to smooth jazz, but otherwise the collection is full of smart, potent and forcefully delivered tracks. The presence of Clapton as a soloist suggests that relationship has the ability to still bear fruit and as white-boy funk goes, Winwood remains a master. Released by Columbia, it is a far better sounding record and more focused effort than “About Time,” the result of time and money.
Those two attributes are in evidence on the debut album of “Mudcrutch,” recorded in 10 days about 32 years after the band broke up. Mudcrutch features Heartbreakers Petty on bass, Mike Campbell on guitar and Benmont Tench on keyboards along with Tom Leadon on guitar and Randall Marsh on drums. They recorded a single for Asylum after moving to L.A. from Gainesville, Fla., that went nowhere; the band never got to release its version of “Don’t Do Me Like That.”
Beyond a reunion, Mudcrutch gave Petty a chance to experiment with doing things the old-fashioned way – write tunes in a hurry, record songs in a single take and do everything live. The procedure yielded a nine-minute Allmans-esque jam, Crystal River, about a half-dozen twists on the Flying Burrito Brothers including the bluegrass-inspired flatpicking on “June Apple” and a pop tune, “Oh Maria,” that could be part of the Heartbreakers’ arsenal.
Live, Mudcrutch and Portishead re-produced their records. Mudcrutch, at the Troubadour, was a tight country-rock band with a few fun covers (Dylan, the Killer), while Portishead was impressive in each individual performance but has yet to figure out a way to smoothly segue from their past to their present. Winwood will be opening shows this summer for Petty & the Heartbreakers; it may well be the season’s most interesting rock timeline on display.
Of the three albums, Portishead is the likely top-seller with predictions hovering around 50,000. Mudcrutch should do about half of that.

Since the last post, I have attended four concerts and seen 28 acts leaving me with 72 concerts and 184 acts to go on the path to 100/300.
On the stereo:
Car: Daniella Cotton “Rock N Soul”; Esperanza Spalding; Cinematic Orchestra “Live at the Royal Albert Hall”; Duffy “Rockferry”; Scarlett Johansson “Anywhere I Lay My Head”; Hayes Carll “Trouble in Mind”
Home: Jacob Young “Sideways”; Raconteurs “Consolers of the Lonely”; David Grisman Quintet “DGQ-20” (disc 2); Steve Miller Band box set (disc 2); Billy Bragg “Mr. Love & Justice”

Set List: Steve Winwood & Eric Clapton, New York 2008

On Monday, Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton performed the first of three nights at Madison Square Garden, opening with a classic from their short-lived supergroup Blind Faith. BF and Traffic dominated the set list and included a mystery tune called "Low Down."
Rolling Stone has a review of their performance of:

Had To Cry Today / Low Down / Forever Man /  Them Changes / Sleeping In The Ground / Presence Of The Lord / Glad>Well Alright /  Double Trouble / Pearly Queen / Tell The Truth /  No Face / After Midnight / Split Decision /  Ramblin On My Mind (EC solo acoustic) / Georgia On My Mind (SW solo) / Little Wing / Voodoo Chile / Can't Find My Way Home / Dear Mr Fantasy / Crossroads

Clapton, Winwood Find Their Way Home ... To New York

With no word on what plans Ginger Baker has at the end of February,  Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton will perform Feb. 25, 26 and 28 at Madison Square Garden, their first official concerts together in nearly 39 years.  Tickets are being sold first to American Express cardholders, beginning Nov. 12.
The two musicians worked together in Blind Faith - a "supergroup" featuring two members each of Traffic and Cream - and appeared together at the Chicago Crossroads Guitar Festival in July.
In the decades since Blind Faith's lone release, "Had to Cry Today" has never received its proper due as one of Winwood's finest hours. Meanwhile, the 15 minute "Do What You Like" has moved from horrid space filler to significant jam.
Blind Faith went on one tour. It started July 12, 1969 at Madison Square Garden and ended Aug. 24 in Hawaii.
Winwood and Clapton have not yet discussed the set list for the shows - that will be worked out in upcoming rehearsals.
Winwood's last album was initially recorded for the String Cheese Incident's SCI Fi label and then picked up by Sony Music. His next disc will be released by Sony's Columbia Records  in early 2008.  Clapton recently published his autobiography and a companion CD, "Complete Clapton," was released by Warner Music's Reprise.
Their performance at the Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago is part of  a 2-disc DVD available Nov. 20 from Rhino Entertainment.