ChrisDarrow-CoyoteSlideReview

TheMusicManor.COM

CHRIS DARROW
Coyote/Straight From The Heart (1997)
Slide On In (2002)
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Although better known as a versatile recording artist and session man who played an integral role in the development of Country-Rock, which spawned the ‘California sound,’ the best kept secret in music is that Chris Darrow might be the finest slide guitarist in Blues. That’s right. Blues. No where is that notion in evidence as much as it is on two definitive, unsung releases by the artist: 1997’s Coyote/Straight From The Heart and 2002’s Slide On In.

Darrow’s superb sense of tone is so raw and pure, you can’t help perceive it as anything but advanced. One hears a journeyman of intensely focused enlightenment. The music moves at will between the subtle infusions of other styles that give his Blues a visionary eye rooted in the past, but one that never looks back. It often evokes a magic reality that lives in the shadow worlds of everyday life, and hints at the supernatural.

Darrow proves to be an even-minded outlaw, perhaps without even realizing it, summing up what is now today considered the mindset of a maverick, telling THEMUSICMANOR.COM in a recent interview, “I follow my nose and try to include myself in situations that will raise my level of musicianship and hopefully will also raise the level of music in general. Being somewhat of a visionary isn’t always the best place to be if you want to be rich and famous. I have never been driven by fame or fortune, more by the opportunity to do what I love, and that is to make records.”

Both Coyote/Straight From The Heart and Slide On In are anchored by incredible production ambience before you even consider the first notes played. To say both discs are ‘cutting-edge’ would be selling short an aural experience that can’t be attributed to any one era, past or present. It just exists in a way that knows no dissolution nor impermanence. Yet both discs are entirely different from one another, even if they do share some of the same qualities.

Coyote/Straight From The Heart are two separate discs in the same package. Coyote is a Southern Californian suite evoking the mythology and topography of the region. As Darrow writes in his liner notes, “The mythology of the coyote and the landscape of Southern California are made for each other. No other part of the world has as many options for activity and satiation as we do. The chaos is part of the allure. The beach, the mountains, the desert, Hollywood and Palm Springs are all part of the pastiche that is Southern California.” Darrow points out the dichotomy between the population of Southern California that “takes its local culture and heritage for granted” and that of the visitors who “know more about the culture than we do” and “take the time to investigate and search.” He reveals that Los Angeles and places like it have a “gyroscopic dynamism which can overpower even the coolest of heads. It takes something with the power of an ocean, a desert, or a mountain to counteract the spinning magnetic pull. That’s why it’s all here. We need it for our psychic well-being. To experience the richness of the landscape, the scent of sage, or a vermilion sunset is the reward of personal participation. Once the hook is set, it’s like a drug: it takes you away.” It’s interesting that on one hand, Darrow observes the region’s visitors as knowing more about the area than its residents; but as a Southern Californian, Darrow notes the destination’s real lure; a lure most commonly credited to the culture, but one that Darrow attributes to the “landscape.” Who can argue such an observation?

The music of Coyote (“A Foothill Suite”) is difficult to describe. There are elements of Blues, Native American music, Spanish Flamenco, World hybrids, Western, Country, a very slight hint of Rock, and various combinations thereof. You could hear it as being representative of California’s mixed culture. Coyote: A Foothill Suite is gorgeous, intriguing, but probably not so accessible to the average listener who, in this modern age of distraction, doesn’t have the attention span necessary to sit still and listen. The music is picturesque, though. It’s cinematic (as is all of the music reviewed in this article) or at the very least, perfect to be heard against the right visual in a natural environment, most often the desert but sometimes the ocean and the mountains.

The second disc in the package, Straight From The Heart, is the first of Darrow’s two essential Blues releases profiled here. It opens with “Stage By Stage,” a track boasting only a lead vocal and electric slide guitar. The tone is heavy, observant, and intense. Darrow’s vocal delivery has a coolheadedness one step away from violence, running cross-current with an undeniable expression of love. The second track, “You’re Inside Of Me,” brings the restrained tension down a notch, but keeps up the momentum. A depiction of love, lust, and romance, Darrow sings with a higher sense of self and wisdom that never seems to slow into the sort of lassitude so many artists who attempt Blues fall prey to. Like everything else Darrow does, there’s a stylistic compound that goes beyond the mere genre lying at its foundation. He injects a fair dose of Country into the record, fused in such a way that it doesn’t come off as straight Country. Rather, there’s an accent on Country-Blues. In Darrow’s world, the two styles aren’t mutually exclusive. Darrow explained to THEMUSICMANOR.COM, “I consider Country music and Blues music as the same deal. Watching the Ray Charles documentary the other night, it's obvious that Ray felt the same way. Billy Joel was quoted as saying that it was the first time he got Country music....it's about the sentiment, not the style. Many people not accustomed to the backwoods singing style that is the precursor for the country style don't get it sometimes. Guys like Hank Williams acknowledge black music's effect on him and Muddy Waters and BB King both credit country music as affecting their early musical lives.”

Darrow’s ethic about Country and Blues being “the same deal” in that “it’s about the sentiment, not the style” is a common thread permeating Straight From The Heart and Slide On In. While a couple of songs on ‘97’s Straight From The Heart, “Push And Pull” and “Hard On The Trail,” hint at a certain darkness featured on 2002’s Slide On In, they don’t suggest the disturbing tone that complements it; nor do they reveal the exotic elements not in evidence on Straight From The Heart, though present on Slide On In.

Slide On In turns on “Kumbha Mela,” the disc’s opening cut, with a sinister, modified guitar featuring a special “buzz bridge.” Invented by Darrow’s friend, Kiki Barnes, the instrument is described in the liner notes as a “slide sitar, a lap-steel with Barnes’ “buzz bridge’ installed.” Utilizing an arsenal of other exotic instruments, including an electric tambura and a special, one-of-a-kind bass Darrow calls his WMI (weird Mexican instrument), “Kumbha Mela” sounds like a cross between Indian Raga and American Blues. The mood is upheld by a dark, hypnotic beat amidst a spell of voodoo and black magic. Slide On In continues with “Jailhouse Tattoo,” the lament of a man who accepts his incarceration, yet in despair realizes that no matter what he does or how he thinks, his resolve can’t replace the need for a woman he had on the outside.

What makes Slide On In so disturbing is its dusky mood. It dominates the record throughout with little chance for mercy. More disconcerting is the irony of Slide On In’s mojo. It attracts the listener like a woman who undresses your soul, reaches in to grab hold of your heart, and says “mine.” She’s no good for you. You’re enslaved by her allure; and you can get on your knees to pray with the kind of obsession only love can effect, but she won’t let you go nor ease the heaviness in your heart. Worse, you don’t want her to let go. No more is human bondage of that kind in evidence than on “Love Chain.” A tale of romantic addiction, Darrow intones the object of his affection: “You went through some trouble to get me/Different goodies on your line/Now that you got me, baby/I can never get much of your time.” Even the amiable strut of “Short Walk” is marked by insouciance and a sense of fatalism. The song’s lightheartedness is beguiling. The character in “Short Walk” shrugs off any notion of hardship with “I don’t care what may happen/Here today and gone tomorrow/I don’t care what may happen/What I can’t steal I sure can’t borrow.” A temporary respite at best, because Darrow revisits hard sentiment in “Don’t Come Back,” getting back up after being knocked down to tell an estranged lover, “My heart can take it/Every time that you break it/So please baby don’t come back.” He keeps up the subtle aggression on “Every Bad Thing You Do,” accusing a nemesis right at the top: “You lie through your teeth/And look me straight in the eye/Telling me stories/It’s just alibis/Like a snake in the grass/Slithering by/You show your true colors/Not the disguise.”

Slide On In is not without vulnerability. On “Tell Me What I Need,” Darrow can’t fight conditions of the heart, entreating a woman with desire, “I need the eyes of a hawk and the legs of a dancer/Tell me what I need to know/Rage and fear stand side by side/Tell me what I need to know/I’d trade it all for one sweet ride/Tell me what I need to know.” Songs such as “Tore Up From The Floor Up” and “I’m Tired Of Being Lonely” expose an even deeper sense of human frailty in the heart. The denouement of Slide On In, though, is a piece of portentous advice to a man of careless conscience: “You better handle your business/You think that there’s no witness/But you’re leaving bad tracks behind/There’ll be hell to pay at a later day/Do you think we’ve all been blind?” With Hawaiian-Country overtones, the sublime languorous flow of “Island Dream” closes the disc.

Darrow’s unshakable composure is disarming. It makes Slide On In a record of self-possession nonetheless jarring in its expressiveness. The music is delusory to that effect as well, supporting the songs with a restless pot pourri of moody instrumentation, slide guitar being the anchor.

Whereas Straight From The Heart featured more Country-inflected gems to ease the mind, this record, musically, rides more on a hard concoction of exotic ingredients and solid Blues, the latter which can only be described as eclectic if you didn’t know any better. Eclectic stylings often forego feeling in favor of originality, but there’s no lack of depth to Slide On In. Darrow’s music on this record knows no label.

You’ve heard Muddy Waters. You’ve heard Jimi Hendrix. You’ve heard Ry Cooder. You’ve heard ‘em all. The Darrow experience is a different deal altogether. Like the happiest and most tragic moments in life, it’s not one you’re bound to forget.

Highly Recommended.

-- Greg Debonne

background photo images: © 2007 Steven Cahill