J.J. Cale & Eric Clapton - The Road To Escondido (2006) 2LP

Two artists had an enormous impact on Eric Clapton's music in the '70s: Delaney & Bonnie and J.J. Cale. Clapton joined Delaney & Bonnie's backing band after Cream dissolved, an experience that helped him ease away from the bombast of the power trio and into the blend of soul, blues, pop, and rock that defined his solo sound. Delaney Bramlett helped steer Clapton's eponymous 1970 solo debut, which not only came very close to replicating the sound of Delaney & Bonnie's records from that time, but also had a rollicking version of J.J. Cale's "After Midnight" that was Clapton's first solo hit. Cale's influence surfaced again a few years later on Clapton's 1978 album Slowhand, which not only had J.J.'s sardonic "Cocaine" as its centerpiece but also drew heavily from Cale's laconic groove. Although Clapton progressively polished his sound over the course of the '80s, dabbling in pop along the way, he never quite strayed from the blueprint that he wrote based on his love of Cale's music, so his decision to team up with Cale for a full-fledged duet album called The Road to Escondido in 2006 felt natural, perhaps even overdue. After all, Clapton's work has borne the imprint of Cale's sound for over three decades now, so a duet record 36 years after Eric had a hit with "After Midnight" feels right. Initially, Clapton planned to cut a record with Cale functioning as a producer, but the project morphed into a duet album where Cale has a stronger presence than Clapton: the superstar might have brought in his longtime producer/collaborator Simon Climie, who has helmed every one of his records since 1998's Pilgrim, but Cale brought in members of his backing band and wound up writing 11 of the album's 14 tracks, effectively dominating The Road to Escondido. Even if Cale is the driving force behind the album, it's easy to listen to the album and think otherwise, since Climie gives this a precise, polished production that's entirely too slick for the rootsy music the duo plays, which in turn makes it sonically similar to all Clapton albums of the past ten years. Also, there are a lot of cameos from familiar pros (drummer Steve Jordan; bassist Pino Palladino; guitarists Albert Lee, Derek Trucks, and John Mayer; the late Billy Preston in some of his last sessions), giving this a crisp, professional vibe more in line with Clapton than Cale.