Robben Ford’s new live Soul On Ten CD is a smoking testament
to the player Musician magazine once called one of the “100 Greatest
Guitarists of the 20th Century.” The five-time Grammy nominee began his
career playing behind the great blues harpist Charlie Musselwhite. Since then,
he’s backed Joni Mitchell, George Harrison and Miles Davis, among several
others. With this 10-song CD, Ford is accompanied by a cracker-jack band whose
performance was taken from a two-night stand in San Francisco.
The slow, wah-wah blues of “Supernatural” opens up the CD as Ford’s
vocals cut through alongside his subtle and clean style. “Indianola”
is a funky instrumental with some rolling bass work from Travis Carlton, jazz
great Larry Carlton’s son. There’s some more wah-wah guitar on “There’ll
Never Be Another You,” followed by a great read on Willie Dixon’s “Spoonful”
where Ford trades licks with organist Neal Evans.
“Nothin’ To Nobody,” a song Ford wrote with Michael MacDonald,
is probably the easiest tune to listen to here — not really commercial
per say with the bass break up the middle; however, it would be perfect for
AOR radio. Then there’s the swampy Elmore James/Jimmy Reed combo of “Please
Set A Date/You Don’t Have To Go” with Evans and Ford deeply interacting
— probably the heaviest sound of the entire set.
The Bonnie Raitt /George Benson-like work-out on Ford’s own “Earthquake”
highlights the guy’s clean and proficient style — simple effective leads
and picked-out single notes that never miss. “Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me”
is a wholly different tune, with a bossa-nova shuffle (well, at least at the
beginning) popping percussion and a 70’s-like sax lead from Karl Denson. “Thoughtless,”
another Ford original, has a really funny lyric with Larry Golding on the Hammond
B3 organ and Jon Button on bass (these last two were recorded live in the studio).
Robben Ford is simply a great player without even trying to show off. There
are few guitarists who can lay down such clean tones and flitter off licks like
this without having to mask it with effects. He leads, measures the pace, let’s
the band flesh it out behind him knows when to finish without overstaying his
welcome. Count on Soul On Ten to take you there and back.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
