Nils Lofgren is a member of the E Street Band, one of Bruce Springsteen’s guitarists; he’s a real multi-instrumentalist, he’s played with Neil Young, he’s played with Lou Reed; Nils is a composer, a producer, a performer… I will never ever forget his shocking intro over “WAR”, before the Boss enters and create total mayhem… Having played in more than fifty (!) albums, toured the world numerous times and dominated the biggest stages of the globe, Nils has nothing to prove. He’s just doing what he knows best. Releasing GREat albums…
This “Old School” bouquet is actually a sum of ideas and melodies based on good Blues, Honkeytonk, electric/acoustic stuff and music that Ry Cooder would adore in a second.
Huge Lou Gramm (Foreigner) is starring in opening track (Old School), whilst legendary collaborations continue over “Amy Joan Blues”, with His Freeness and BadConess, the one and only Paul Rodgers participating… The moments offered by this oldschoolthing are unique. Nils is proudly singing “60 is the new 18”, obviously talking about his age – he’s sixty now – and probably pointing on some trivia issue as he was only eighteen when he joined Neil Young’s band. “Ain’t too many of us left” and another duet is on, with the mighty Sam Moore this time, on a song referring to a bitter fact… That many of their friends are long gone (Clarence Clemons amongst them)…
Huge Lou Gramm (Foreigner) is starring in opening track (Old School), whilst legendary collaborations continue over “Amy Joan Blues”, with His Freeness and BadConess, the one and only Paul Rodgers participating… The moments offered by this oldschoolthing are unique. Nils is proudly singing “60 is the new 18”, obviously talking about his age – he’s sixty now – and probably pointing on some trivia issue as he was only eighteen when he joined Neil Young’s band. “Ain’t too many of us left” and another duet is on, with the mighty Sam Moore this time, on a song referring to a bitter fact… That many of their friends are long gone (Clarence Clemons amongst them)…
The way Lofgren narrates, speeds up, the way he expresses irony and sarcasm is the way of a grand musician putting out a bunch of songs, which they might sound all different yet they are all his. “Miss you Ray” is written for Ray Charles, another legend who visited the other side. “Just because you love me” features that Boss-thing style, that beautiful roughness. “Dream big” belongs to the same species, yet it’s a bit more dark, featuring some crazy orchestrations, because of the horns involved.
A GREat album by a GREat artist. I think that the best epilogue is a few lyrics from the same title track. “Our spineless Congress should all be fired, get some women and men with balls and sense hired”…
