While J.J. Cale has always been grateful for the recognition his songs have received, particularly when performed by other artists, he has remained somewhat of a recluse. Eight years after his last studio album, and two years since his last tour, Cale returns with To Tulsa and Back, another timeless, enduring recording from the man that Eric Clapton has called, “One of the masters of the last three decades of music.”
When Clapton recorded “After Midnight,” which Cale had written in the mid-sixties, in 1970, this Tulsa native, who began performing in the fifties, emerged from relative obscurity and, suddenly, became known as a profound influence on some of the biggest names in the business. In addition to Clapton (who has also make recorded versions of Cale’s “Cocaine,” “Travelin’ Light,” and “I’ll Make Love To You Anytime”), artists such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Deep Purple, Johnny Cash, The Band and Santana began covering his tunes.
Then, in the late 1980’s Widespread Panic introduced Cale’s music to a whole new era of fans. “Those guys make a three minute song last 15 minutes,” Cale says, “and everybody does a solo. But they still need songs. How they discovered mine, I don’t know. But they did. Then through those songs, a whole new generation discovered me.”
To Tulsa and Back is a warm, relaxed, rhythmic record that preserves the down-home feeling that defines Cale’s sound. The album was recorded in his hometown, in a studio owned by drummer and old friend David Teagarden, and features a number of Cale’s long time cohorts.
“I drove down there and we found all the guys I played with in bars when we were young fellas. We spent a week tracking in the studio, but it was like a social thing with barbecues and stuff, as much as a recording session. I played with some of these guys 40 years ago and I tell you, I don’t think there’s anyone on this record who’s under 60 years old.”
The resulting album, which was supported by an equally rare tour early hits summer, is an effort that retains the trademark sound that has made Cale famous.
Describing the album Cale says, “I don’t think there is a Tulsa sound as such. It is just individuals. In western Oklahoma, you’ve got a lot of country music. Then, in eastern Oklahoma, it’s closer to the Mississippi, and you’ve got more blues musicians. In Tulsa, both influenced us, and there’s some jazz in there too. So, I guess that is where I got my sound.”
Whatever their origins, the sounds, and more particularly the songs, on To Tulsa and Back are definitively Cale. While many of the tracks on the album find Cale singing songs of love, his older years also find him addressing concerns about the political world in which we live, “The Problem,” and environmental issues,” Stone River,” which as written for the Earth Justice Campaign.
No matter what the subject matter, J.J. Cale is back, and sounding as fine as ever. On this, his debut for Sanctuary Records, Cale delivers on album that is timeless and enduring, exactly what one would expect from the man affectionately known as “Mr. Breeze.”
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