Following three sold out nights with Eric Clapton at New York’s Madison Square Gardens, Steve Winwood has announced a special one off gig at The Scala in London on May 19th.
Steve Winwood a hugely accomplished musician and one of the most respected and innovative performers of his generation is back with an eagerly anticipated new album, 'NINE LIVES’,
Backed by his incredible band, 2008 is shaping up to be a busy year on the road for Steve who has also confirmed he will be joining Tom Petty for a three month run of shows in the US this summer.
Tickets go on sale now below:
Monday 19th May 2008 The Scala, London, UK Ticket price: £25
Nine Lives expands on all the many phases and turns of Steve Winwood's lustrous career, bristling with his pure joy of music-making. The new songs range from the inspiring "Fly" to the burning "Dirty City" (featuring a guest appearance by long-time friend Eric Clapton) to the simmering "Hungry Man", joining a canon that spans more than forty years to include some of the most beloved songs of modern pop and rock.
"Chronicles" is not an album in the purest sense, but rather an anthology of songs from some Steve Winwood's better solo albums. While Winwood's name may not be well known to everyone, his music, without a doubt, is. After earning his stripes with such notable groups as The Spencer Davis Group, Blind Faith (with Eric Clapton), and, most notably, Traffic, Winwood branched out into a solo career and found enormous success in that arena. "Chronicles" is the perfect sampler for people who may not be sure they know Steve Winwood or only know a couple of songs. It takes a cross-section of his best tracks from a number of his solo albums and puts them together in this fine listening experience.
Out of the 10 tracks, there are only two songs that don't really impress me: "Arc of a Diver" and "Spanish Dancer". Their musical stylings don't really support the soaring, fast-paced theme of this album. Beyond those, there are four minor hits with "Vacant Chair, "Help Me Angel", "My Love's Leaving", and "Talking back to the Night". All have their good musical moments and fit well in this album.
From there, you get the major hits from Steve Winwood. The most underrated one is "Wake Me Up on Judgment", which tells the story of man who has lived a hard life and tells his tale of just waiting until Judgment Day when he believes he will feel glory again. "Higher Love" is one of Winwood's bigger hits with self-explanatory meaning and the unmistakable beat of the drums at the song's start.
The true stellar tracks on this album are "While You See a Chance" and "Valerie". "While You See a Chance" begins almost like a church hymn and then transitions fast-paced parable about making the most of the opportunities that life gives you. "Valerie" is just an unbelievably amazing song. From the opening drum beats combined with the synthesizer tunes, this song simply soars and seems to completely surround and embrace the listener. Electric guitar and horns, in addition to the drums and synthesizer, are what power this heartfelt remembrance of a former love and plea for it to return. The saxophone interlude just prior the final verse is one of finest selections of music I have ever heard.
The lack of "The Finer Things" and "Back in the High Life" and the inclusion of the two underwhelming tracks I mentioned earlier are the only things costing this album a 5-star rating. But, beyond that, if this album doesn't make you a Steve Winwood fan, nothing will. Chances are, though, that if you do listen this and have never heard him before, you will fall in love with his music. If you're a long time fan, you greatly appreciate this anthology of his best solo efforts. It's truly amazing.
If you enjoyed the group Traffic this is a must CD to purchase Jim Capaldi was a genius.
Even many Traffic fans probably aren't familiar with the extensive solo career of the band's cofounder Jim Capaldi. Therefore, this multi-artist, live tribute to the late singer/songwriter/drummer (also available on DVD), recorded in January 2007 in London, will be a revelation to many who only know his work in conjunction with Steve Winwood. About half of these 20 songs are selections from the late Capaldi's many solo releases, several of them relatively obscure. An all-star ensemble led by Winwood, Paul Weller, Joe Walsh, and Pete Townsend give the Traffic/Capaldi catalog a spin with impressive results. Although bandmate Dave Mason is conspicuous by his absence, the cast also features Bad Company's Simon Kirke, blues rocker Gary Moore, longtime Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord, and Capaldi's brother Phil, all interpreting tunes Capaldi wrote or co-wrote. Aside from the Traffic material, he was best known for ballads such as the lovely "Lost Inside Your Love" (gracefully performed here by singer Stevie Lange) and the Eagles hit "Love Will Keep Us Alive," which closes the program on a melancholy note. Yet it's his bluesy midtempo rockers like "Whale Meat Again" (urged on by Kirke), "Pearly Queen" (Weller), and "Gifts of Unknown Things" (Phil Capaldi sounding eerily like his brother) that resonate with the greatest intensity. Yusuf Islam (a.k.a. Cat Stevens) makes a rare appearance (gliding into his "Wild World" during "Man with No Country"), and Pete Townshend also turns in an impassioned performance on this obviously heartfelt tribute to a sadly overlooked talent.
I disagreee strongly with most of the reviews I have read on here about this CD and i really don't understand. I first heard Steve on record on AM radio back in the 60's doing the hit song "Gimme Some Lovin" with the Spencer Davis Group and to this day I am impressed with that performance. Steve has dabbled in various musical styles and groups during his colorful career, but i think he's at this best when he's singing and playing an R@B/blues type of combination music. In other words.....he's great when he gets funky........and he gets funky on this
release in spades. To me it's the best he's ever sounded and played. "Spy in the House of Love" is an instant classic featuring steve on some very tasteful blues guitar licks. And
if "Just Wanna have Some Fun" and if "Fill Me Up" don't get your toes to tapping then you better check to make sure you're still
alive. It's true that there are no 15 minute spaced out jams on
here for those who want to get stoned and slobber all over their
love beads.....but I like it like that. I play this often in my
regular room in Yahoo voice chat and everybody loves it.....so
it's not just me. The production is clear and perfect contray to
what i read on here. I saw him do "Spy in the House of Love" on the Letterman TV show and was so impressed that I immediately bought the CD and wasn't disappointed....to say the least! You won't be either!
Steve Winwood had a period of 3 years from 1986 to 1988 where he was on top of the world. He had three very commercially successful albums in "Back in the High Life", "Chronicles", and "Roll With It". As with most artists who cross-over into pop, its often very difficult to have 3 to 4 successful albums commercially. Thus when Refugees of the Heart (ROTH) came out, it hit the wall in terms of commercial sales.
When you listen to this album, there are three noticable differences with this album:
1. This is not the up-tempo Stevie Winwood we heard during the three year period I mentioned. It's a more mellow collection of songs. If you've heard "Don't You Know What the Night Can Do?" from "Roll With It" (and the beer commercials), that's the trend of the sound this album takes. 2. [...] there is an infusion of progressive rock and jazz on this album. Almost more of "Back to the Future" Traffic days. 3. Steve Winwood shows us a lot of his spirtual side. While I don't think this is a "Christian Rock" album, Winwood emphasises a lot of spirtuality that he had previously not seen. I'm surprised that more was not made to this. When Creed put out their albums, they made a big deal about it.
The result is a masterpiece. When ROTH came out, I thought for sure it was a Sure Winner for the Grammy. I was shocked to see it didn't even garner any attention. The disappointing commercial sales didn't surprise me. This was not a POP album and I didn't not expect it to be on the Top 40 stations all that much.
As for the Songs - I feel they are all incredible. A quick synopsis: 1.You'll Keep on Searching: Immediately on this opening track, I heard the differences above. The music reminds you of "Don't You Know What the Night Can Do?" even though this is not a sequel. 2.Every Day (Oh Lord): This is the second song on the album and the first where we hear Winwood express references to his faith in the song. It is one of the faster tempo songs on the album and is very catchy. 3.One and Only Man: This was the only song from ROTH to make the Top 40. In this song, Steve explores a relationship - a lot of trademark Winwood vocals in here. 4.I Will Be Here: A very powerful ballad. This song grips at you emotionally as you play the track. 5.Another Deal Goes Down: This song is loaded with symbolism. Listen to it and check out the words. Spirtuality is a big theme in this song as he discusses the temptation of the Devil. 6.Running On: This song is another classic. More of a higher tempo than most ROTH songs. He makes the reference to Memphis, which is his new home. 7.Come Out and Dance: This might not be the most catchy song on the album, but there are some great lyrics to the song. I particularly like the lines "Now baby, don't read the papers, 'cause they always make you sad And honey, don't watch the TV 'cause the news is always bad" and "If we got everyone dancing, wouldn't be no time for war". Clearly Winwood tells us his feelings on this topic. 8.In the Light of Day: This is the signature song of the album. Nearly 9 minutes of great lyrics and great instrumentation. It is the deepest song of the album. Winwood has the strongest references to his spirtuality on the album. The song builds to a crescendo both lyrically and musically. It is my favorite Winwood song of all time.
This is an album I highly recommend if you are a Winwood fan looking to hear a new direction - or someone who hasn't heard Steve Winwood and is looking for something different.
Steve Winwood's third solo album, "Talking Back To The Night", was originally released in August of 1982, and it's quite similar to its predecessor "Arc of a Diver". Nicole Winwood did sing background vocals on a couple tracks, but otherwise, like "Arc...", there's no one else involved in making the album--Steve played, produced, and engineered the album entirely by himself.
"Talking Back To The Night" really does sound like a one-man-band album--it seems quite obvious that for most of the songs, if not all of them, Steve laid down drum machine parts first so he had a foundation to build the rest of the song upon. It's telling that in his liner notes he gives special thanks to Linn Electronics Inc, known for bringing drum machines into prominence in the early '80s. Now, I really don't have any problem with drum machines the way some people do--I think they can work to terrific effect when used properly and in the right context.
However, take for instance the album-opener "Valerie". It's a really beautfully melodic, wonderfully wistful song. But it could have been considerably more effective. The drum machine rhythm is bare bones and straight-down-the-middle, with no fills or 'cymbals' whatsoever; plus the starkness of the overall arrangement is a little thin, and in the end the song just has too much of an "unfinished demo" feel to it.
Steve goes really heavy on the synthesizers here, and it tends to be problematic. Yes, occasionally the album is terrific--"Help Me Angel" is an irresistibly catchy feel-good tune with a great crunchy synth sound that helps the song's fun riffs really take off; and the arresting, atmospheric title track is a haunting song about drug addiction--stylistically, it resembles "Night Train" from his previous album, but it's edgier & far superior. However, the synths are really dreary and headache inducing at times, as on the album-closing ballad "There's A River". "Valerie", "Help Me Angel", & the title track all appear in 'updated' versions on the "Chronicles" compilation CD from 1987, & that's rather interesting because they are easily the three best songs on this album.
That leads to what is really the album's main failing in the end: the songwriting. Every song here was written by Steve Winwood & Will Jennings--I assume Winwood wrote all the music, and that Jennings was primarily, if not entirely, responsible for the lyrics, and a couple songs are weighed down by really lame lyrics--the ballad "And I Go" is quite an embarassing song about making love; and "It Was Happiness" has really cheesy 'passage of time' romance lyrics. "Still in the Game" is a decent tune, but both it and "It Was Happiness" are exhaustingly long-winded, as if Steve was straining to build a song around Jennings' lyrics.
