www.ChrisRea.nl

Hi all,

according to Chris' Facebook-site Jon Kelly will be engineering and producing Chris' new record. If that's true than it is really really good news. I think Jon Kelly is one of the most prolific producers in the world and he really made Chris' most successful albums shine. I always thought Chris should be working with him again because I really disliked the sound of the last albums and I think that Chris was never as a good a producer like he is as a songwriter. Hope Jon can do some magic!

Also on Facebook it is said that Max Middleton will be playing in Chris' band during the coming tour!

Let's hope it's all true!

Cheers,

Tobi

Do you mean THIS new record, i.e. Santo Spirito? Then it's strange that a song like 'Dancing the Blues Away' is on this record and was chosen for the radio play.

You're right, elangelo. That's exactly what I was thinking. Maybe the song was only a demo - or the record company or Chris wasn't happy with the result and decided to re-record the tracks? I'd be alright with this decision - as I said I didn't like the sound of his last albums - especially the drums sounded to artificial.

Tracklisting new album

1 Dancing My Blues Away
2 Rock And Roll Tonight
3 Never Tie Me Down
4 The Chance Of Love
5 The Last Open Road
6 Electric Guitar
7 Money
8 The Way She Moves
9 Dance With Me All Night Long
10 Think Like A Woman
11 You Got Lucky
12 Lose My Heart In You
13 I Will Go On

Well, most of us know the tracklist, I would hope to get previews

By the way, it's pretty clear now that the previous information about the release on June 13th wasn't false. I'm sure that Rhino decided to invite Jon Kelly to re-produce the album, so the release was postponed.

Kelly may have called for a more commercial sound
Repeating the experience in Road to Hell and Auberge

... or just more professional? Because Stony Road, Blue Jukebox and Blue Guitars do sound great, but the last album and "The Definitive Greatest Hits" sound like a home recording

elangelo wrote:... or just more professional? Because Stony Road, Blue Jukebox and Blue Guitars do sound great, but the last album and "The Definitive Greatest Hits" sound like a home recording

Probably, it is a point of view of a man too mad of sound clarity and quality, but listening to the abovementioned recordings on a high-level audio-system, I must admit the sound quality is rather poor, it lacks "fatness" and depth, enegetic passages do not trigger the same feelings as the old (of Warner era) Chris's recordings do...

Someone would oppose, but it is my humble opinion...

Well, I didn't know that, that's an interesting point. But I didn't notice it and it didn't stress me as it does now
By the way, I think it's normal when a blues/jazz jam-like recording (i.e. most of the instruments are recorded at once, during a session) sounds not as clear and 'distilled' as a studio pop record, I think it's totally fine and I even like it better sometimes. But there's a line of 'home recording' (instead of 'small club atmosfere') that we shouldn't cross at any case. I hope you understand what I mean.

I do

What I really meant, is, probably, the sound engineering.
You can use a hi-level system (or simply go to a shop and ask for a test play if you don't own one) to listen, e.g., Set Me Free or Lookin' for a Rainbow, they seem to me a pattern of a great power blues sound, then the album version of, say, Between the Highway 61 & 49 and after all its TRTH&B live version, played in Kremlin, by the way, where the sound is poor itself, and you'll clearly see what I mean. Good processing and engineering of this live recording cures the sound even of a venue unsitable for such gigs, while the sound of the album version seems to lack just frequency range, making the sound flat as if it were an mp3! I came across such sound on Cds which eventually turned up to be well-made pirate copies, but I hardly can imagine a fake copy of Blue Guitars earbook!

They keep rotating this track from the new album at BBC Radio 2:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013dr6r#p00jxyt9