#1691 Gary Clark Jr. - Blak and Blu

1) How do you move units as a bluesman in 2015?

By making an album for people who aspire to be people who like the blues, but who don't really have the patience for the blues (which, shit I don't know, might include me). So you load it with crossover bids: late-era Black Keys jams, neo-soul crooners, Cage the Elephant stompers, a little honkytonky riproaring. And then you drizzle the blues over top, and everyone gets to talk real knowing-like about really liking the blues.

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Let's walk that question back.

2) How do you even make a blues album in 2015?

The blues is the blues is the blues - that structure's solid ground // an ironclad cage. You could just be *thatfuckingood* and out-chops // out-soul the greats, but even if you do, and you won't, there's about 25 guys who are gonna hear it.

And the answer to both of these questions is right here: Blak and Blu is the blueprint, the embodiment of making a blues album in 2015. That cuts both ways.


The highlights are great: Clark Jr. does crack open the blues, taking it to psychedelic // garagey places without busting up the structure, it's a good trick that requires a real craft. He's drawn a lot of praise for his guitarwork, and if you ask me it's less about fireworks and more about the way he uses space, the way he stretches ideas and phrases across bars. He lets the blues blllllllleeddddddd.

So he pulls off the update, but then he keeps just right on going and the bare populism undercuts the album's flow, hacks out its soul. The [other] stuff feel producer-suggested, contractually-mandated, made for getting download cards into Starbuckses.

How do you move units with the blues in 2015? How do you make a blues album in 2015?

Both tough ones, the album's less than it could be for trying to do both. Here's hoping dude gets big and shows us where his heart's at on the next one 3.5/5