Friday Check-In

Just a brief hello to say I'm working on a longer post, which I should have up in the next day or two. Hopefully it's worth the wait. I've been dealing with insomnia for some time, which partially explains my pensive expression, above. I'm doing my best to just try to take things one day at a time.

More soon. Have a good Friday, everyone...

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I've been listening to the blues quite a bit lately. First up is "Old Love," a great song co-written by Eric Clapton and Robert Cray, from Clapton's 1989 album Journeyman. For my money it's his best solo album, and this is its best song. The guitar playing, as you would expect, is stellar:

I was shocked to discover that in five years of writing this blog I have never posted a single song from Robert Cray. I've loved his music from the beginning. This is my favorite song by him, "The Last Time (I Get Burned Like This)," from False Accusations, his 1985 album. (Strong Persuader, which features "Smoking Gun," came out in 1986.)

Few songs are as dead-on in capturing the emotional devastation caused by betrayal. He still performs "The Last Time" to this day, and more than does it justice. But it's clear from his performance here, shortly after the album was released, that this song was deeply personal:

His guitar playing is so spare, but so incredibly evocative. Less is quite clearly more in this instance.

I will certainly be posting more from Mr. Cray in future posts. Stay tuned, everyone...