Staff Reviews

The Rolling Stones - Blue & Lonesome

Review by Joe Goggins

It’s difficult to pinpoint when was the last time that the Stones made a record that felt this free of conflict, this far from being compromised by a clash of ideologies»

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The Rolling Stones release Blue and Lonesome, their first studio album in over a decade. Recorded in just three days in London, England, this is an album full of their passion for the music that has always been at the heart and soul of the band - Blues. Recorded in three days in December last year at British Grove Studios in West London, just a stone’s throw from Richmond and Eel Pie Island where the Stones started out as a young blues band playing pubs and clubs. The credits say it all, in the way this project was approached to play live in the studio without overdubs. Mick Jagger (vocals and harp), Keith Richards (guitar), Charlie Watts (drums), and Ronnie Wood (guitar), plus their long time touring sidemen Darryl Jones (bass), Chuck Leavell (keyboards) and Matt Clifford (keyboards). For two of the twelve tracks the Stones were also joined by old friend Eric Clapton, who happened to be in the next studio making his own album. Blue and Lonesome sees the Rolling Stones tipping their hats to the blues roots with tracks of intense spontaneity. It’s hard to believe that this is a record made by musicians in their sixth decade of recording. In their very early days the Stones played the music of Jimmy Reed, Willie Dixon, Eddie Taylor, Little Walter and Howlin’ Wolf - artists whose songs are featured on this album. Producer Don Was commented “This album is manifest testament to the purity of their love for making music, and the blues is, for the Stones, the fountainhead of everything they do.”
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