Track Listing

1. Why Don't We Do It In The Road? - Jimmy Thackery
2. Yer Blues - Lucky Peterson
3. Happiness Is A Warm Gun - Anders Osborne
4. Revolution - Kenny Neal, Lucky Peterson, Tab Benoit
5. Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da - Maria Muldaur, Chris Duarte
6. While My Guitar Gently Weeps - Joe Louis Walker
7. Don't Pass Me By - T-Bone Wolk
8. I'm So Tired - Chris Duarte
9. Blackbird - Colin Linden
10. Dear Prudence - Charlie Musselwhite, Colin Linden

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #111207 in Music
• Released on: 2002-01-22
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
This blues tribute to one of the Beatles's most important recordings has little to commend. The one truly outstanding cut is Joe Louis Walker's slow, soulful squeeze through "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," where his voice and lead guitar cry and moan, bringing the song's deep currents of pain to the surface. T-Bone Wolk and Anders Osborne stick to the original arrangements of "Don't Pass Me By" and "Happiness Is a Warm Gun," coming up with suitably amiable and dark results, respectively. Singer Maria Muldaur, joined by guitarist Chris Duarte, gives "Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da" a blithe Memphis soul treatment. But the rest suffers from a lack of time and imagination. A generic funk take on "Revolution" with guitarist-singers Kenny Neal, Lucky Peterson, and Tab Benoit sounds rushed and lazy. And Peterson's "Yer Blues" is riddled with phony vocal hyperventilation. "Blackbird" and "Dear Prudence" have been covered to death by everyone from new-wavers to wedding bands, so it's hard to fault singer-guitarist Colin Linden for failing to bring excitement to the former. Sadly, when he teams with harmonica master Charlie Musselwhite for an instrumental "Dear Prudence," it just sounds like Muzak. --Ted Drozdowski

Customer Reviews

I don't agree with the reviewer either
I think the reviewer was just having a bad day. This album is great fun (though I must admit: I really don't need this -- or ANY -- version of "Don't Pass Me By") and a whole new way of thinking about these classic songs.

Great Covers
I don't agree with the reviewer. I think this is a great cover album, by great artists, having fun.

So is this a blooper or great tribute?
Given Ted Drozdowski's editorial slam and the glowing reviews by shanshiro and a music fan, the potential listener may be confused about "The Blues White Album." The truth is somewhere between. This Beatles tribute has strengths and some serious weaknesses. The album starts out with Jimmy Thackery's 'Why Don't We Do It In The Road?' This highlight reaches a climax that most live bands would save for the encore. Lucky Peterson's "Yer Blues" is a good retelling. It does what every song on this album should: flush out the Blues potential of a Beatles song. Joe Louis Walker offers the other blockbuster off this disc with his version of 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps.' While most of the album plays electric Blues, Colin Linden plays 'Blackbird' acoustically. The first problem with "The Blues White Album" lies with some of the performers and performances. The thing is, when White folks play the Blues, it tends to sound like rock. This is the problem with the songs by Anders Osborne, Maria Muldaur and others. While some of these artists don't even bother pretending, most of their music winds up sounding like Bluesy rock. On a generic Beatles tribute, their songs would be okay, but it does not meet the Blues standard. The other drawback to this disc is the album's concept. Blues versions of songs off "The White Album" could have worked, but it's a project that could only have been successful in the most able hands. It would have been far more productive to release a Blues themed tribute that spanned the Beatles' entire career. That way songs like Let It Be's 'For Your Blue' could have been included. This fails to live up to expectations and I'm an avid listener of the Beatles, the Blues and good tributes. That written, "The Blues White Album" is not a bad album; it's just mediocre given the uneven quality of music.