Search - Eric Gale :: Blue Horizon

Disappointed and puzzled

Hotquad | San Jose, CA United States | 04/01/2004

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Let me start out by saying I'm a HUGE Eric Gale fan, (may he rest in peace, unfortunately.) I was lucky enough to have seen him numerous times in very small clubs in NYC and especially in a club, The Joyous Lake, in Woodstock, NY. The latter was a wonderful venue (it may still be there, I don't know. An unfortunate car accident left me paralyzed in `78. Since wheelchairs and snow don't mix, I ended up in California by 1980) where many famous and not so famous but extremely talented musicians from New York City would come up to the Catskill Mountains for the weekend and play at this wonderful club. But that's a whole other long story. In any event, it was a small club where no seat was more then 20 feet from the stage and most were much closer. Eric Gale played in a band called Stuff which included a number of New York's finest session musicians: Steve Gadd on drums, Richard Tee on keyboards, Gordon Edwards on bass and Cornell Dupree who also played fantastic guitar (Chris Parker, another fine drummer came and went depending upon his recording commitments). So many fantastic evenings of listening to these amazing musicians in such an intimate setting.Prior to purchasing this album, I've owned 2 other Eric Gale albums (and then CD's when they were issued). They are Ginseng Woman, which is definitely a five star album. The digitally remastered version has additional tracks that only add to the album and almost double its length. His other album "Artful Balance/Lets Stay Together" is not as strong but it is definitely four stars and a very nice, easy to listen to record - more laid-back and not as dramatic.This CD, however, is one of the most scattered thrown together records I've ever listened to. It's all over the place. The first time I listened to it, I'd also loaded four other CDs I'd just bought from eBay into my player, to listen to altogether and may sure there were no defective CDs. I hadn't paid particular attention when I loaded them in as to what number each was. When Eric Gale's CD had played a few tracks I stopped the player and checked the CD just to make sure who I was listening to. On a number of the tracks it seemed as though they were throwaway cuts from other artist's records that Eric had played on since the guitar was not the prominent instrument. Also, nothing jumped out and grabbed me, which is something I'm very used to with his music. So, unless you're an Eric Gale fanatic and want to pick this up to pick out a couple of cuts to take or burn your own CD, I'd say don't bother, which pains me."