Search - Ronnie Lane & Slim Chance :: Anymore for Anymore

His first and perhaps strongest solo record

Elliot Knapp | Seattle, Washington United States | 01/21/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"You've gotta love Ronnie Lane, at the very least as a great character in the history of rock music. After leaving the growing success of The Faces because he saw Rod Stewart's ego begin to get too big for the group's britches (Ronnie saw the same thing happening with Steve Mariott in The Small Faces a few years earlier), he started living in his mobile recording studio and making music that is sometimes the polar opposite of The Faces' very late-60's brand of loud bar rock. When you compare Ronnie to someone like Rod Stewart, who started out great only to care about his pocketbook a lot more than making good music, Ronnie becomes a spontaneous, organic, and music-driven artist--exactly what he was. Anymore For Anymore is the first of three top-notch solo studio albums in which Ronnie crafted his own brand of rock that included a pastiche of styles and instrumental combinations, backed by a sometimes large ensemble of mostly acoustic instruments.



As on most of The Faces' albums and his solo records, Ronnie and Slim Chance play a variety of covers and Ronnie's excellent original songs. Anymore For Anymore starts with "Careless Love," an excellent choice to set the tone for this album as well as Ronnie's solo career. It's a traditional song, arranged by Ronnie, featuring a blend of acoustic and electric instrumentation. This microcosm perfectly represents the macrocosm of Ronnie's project--tradition, roots, blended with contemporary sounds and styles and his own creative flair. The song rocks and...folks...at the same time. The rest of this album basically follows this blueprint, except that it's Ronnie's original songs that really shine, bookended by fun, easygoing covers played by a group of people who are enjoying the ride.



"Don't You Cry for Me" and "Bye and Bye" are great examples of this--Ronnie effortlessly blends rock and traditional styles into his originals, backing with some great dobro and Ronnie's signature acoustic. He's in fine voice--one of my favorite things about Ronnie Lane's music is that he always sings his soul out, and there's no guile at all in his heartfelt delivery. With "Silk Stockings," Slim Chance throws in a saxophone, a regular staple of this album (less so on the later ones), "The Poacher," and "Anymore For Anymore" are instant classics, the first with its orchestral arrangement, and the second with its real pastoral feel (it was recorded outside at Ronnie's farm). The mellow, mandolin-tinged "Roll On Babe" is a subtle and moving song, and the album closes on "Chicken Wired," on of Slim Chance's hardest rocking tunes--they sound almost like The Faces.



The version of Anymore For Anymore that I managed to pick up used not only fills the rest of the first disc with alternate versions and bonus tracks, there's an entire second disc (Tin and Tambourine) featuring even more unreleased tracks and embryonic versions of later Slim Chance classics. It's a lot of music, though it's generally not cheap. All I can say is it's worth it to me--this is great music that deserves to be heard by a wider audience. I understand Ronnie's estate is working on re-releasing his catalog (hopefully soon). Until then, probably the cheapest introduction is the recent Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance, which combines most of his 2nd and 3rd albums on one disc. Once you're hooked on that great music, definitely check out Anymore For Anymore--it's a gem that might even outshine those two albums."