Buried Treasure: Anyway The Wind Blows

[Today: J.J. Cale bypasses the music biz...]

J.J. Cale is best known as the writer of ‘Cocaine’ and ‘After Midnight’ (both popularized by Eric Clapton) and ‘Call Me The Breeze’ and ‘I Got The Same Old Blues’ (both popularized by Lynyrd Skynyrd). It’s no accident that he’s been overshadowed (though exceedingly well-compensated) by those covers of his songs, because he’s spent his 35 year career assiduously avoiding the spotlight. “Americans are the ultimate consumers,” he told Rolling Stone in 1979. “They eat their own art, especially popular music. They suck everything they can out of one guy, then say ‘Next.’ If you want to stay in the business you got to find a way to bypass all that.”

To that end, he’s released solid but unspectacular albums with vanilla titles (Naturally, Really, 5, etc), each with two or three killer tunes – making Anyway The Wind Blows a must-have. This anthology compiles 50 tracks over two CDs, including all the highlights and hidden gems from his studio albums. The music here is the very definition of laid back – each of these tunes, even the faster ones, shuffle along and don’t seem to be in any hurry to get where they’re going. Cale also enhances his lazy sound (a huge influence on Clapton’s 70’s vocal style, by the way) by mixing his vocals way down in the tracks, so that at times he’s almost submerged under the music.

In his minimal contact with the press, Cale likes to pass himself off as a plainspoken Okie from Tulsa, but he’s smart enough to avoid the machinery of the music industry while living off his songwriting royalties, and saavy enough to self-produce his albums in his own studio, whenever it strikes his fancy. The music on Anyway The Wind Blows is post-Country and pre-Americana, and provides ample evidence of his considerable songwriting skill.

Listen: After Midnight

Listen: Call Me The Breeze

Listen: Crazy Mama

Tags: Anyway The Wind Blows, Eric Clapton, J.J. Cale, Lynyrd Skynyrd