Jimmy LaFave - Peace Town (2018)

This is a big album from a Texas legend, and in these circumstances, I really hope to God that I like it. I really don’t want to be the guy who disses it. The feeling of dread could also be from the fact that this is not going to be a normal listen and review scenario. This will be an album of mixed emotions from the get-go. A celebration of life versus the sadness of witnessing someone who has passed far too quickly, an enjoyment of experiencing a songwriter at the top of his game against the knowledge that these are to be his last ever recordings.

Jimmy LaFave died in May 2017 at 61 years of age from Spindle Cell Sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that had been diagnosed one year earlier.
 To date Jimmy has released over twenty albums. In September (European release) his label of the last ten years ‘Music Road Records’ will release posthumously release Jimmy’s latest work, Peace Town.
As I hold the CD of Peacetown in my hands, two things strike me. The first being that the packaging is beautiful. Seldom these days is so much effort put into a format that some see already as obsolete. It is clear that Music Road Records wanted to spare no expense in paying tribute to this man, including a lovely cover illustration by Bryan Peterson. Fair play folks.

The second thing that strikes me is that it is a double album. Such a thing is plenty work for any artist, but for a man knowingly approaching his death, it’s quite incredible. Not only that, but this is just the first release of a three-day recording session LaFave had only months before his death, where he recorded around 100 songs. The songs on this album and future releases from these sessions were cut pretty much live as you hear them on the record, with only very few overdubs.

The album starts off like most, punchy and direct. I relax for a while, forgetting for a moment about its backstory. Pete Townsend’s Let my Love Open the Door kicks off with a confident Fleetwood Mac groove. Minstrel Boy is the same. It’s like a strong Tom Petty outtake. Peace Town is almost unrecognisable as a Woody Guthrie number as LaFave puts his own stamp all over it.

A perfect example of song selection follows. Just as I settle nicely into this album, Jimmy LaFave stops me in my tracks with one of the most heartfelt covers of a Bob Dylan song I have ever heard in What Good am I. It is followed by Leon Russell’s Help me Through the Day. The intimacy of his vocal on the Dylan number is pushed to the side as he growls his way through this one. It is at this point that a statement from Jimmy’s nephew Jesse LaFave knocks me sideways…

I’m always surprised when I see people taking on huge songs of others on their albums, especially when they have the writing skills of LaFave. My Back Pages is one of my favourite Dylan songs but my trepidation is short lived as I realise that Jimmy’s writing skills are matched by his interpretation of songs. This version of My Back Pages is probably the first time I’ve been able to listen and let the words and their meaning flow over me, and a moment I’ll remember.
Songs like I May be Used (But I Aint Used Up), My Oklahoma Home (It Blowed Away) and Already Gone are fine examples of a man enjoying himself. Again, his nephew Jesse pointed out that,

“He was kind of showing us how to bow out gracefully, but he was also showing you, okay, if you’re going to die and have three months left, and if you’re a musician or a plumber or whatever, do what you wanna do. Because this is it.”

As we move onto disk 2, Jimmy opens with an absolute belter, Robbie Robertson’s It Makes no Difference. Again, one of my favourite songs of all time. Its hard to not to get goosebumps listening to this man singing this song. JJ Cale’s Don’t Go to Strangers follows the Band’s epic piece and shows off Jimmy’s comfortable relationship with the Blues.

When the Thought of You Catches up with Me is a very apt song for a man who is surely at this stage contemplating everything life has thrown at him. His vocal on this is a reminder that Jimmy LaFave is experiencing every word he sings on this album. As a result, we the listener experience every moment also.

“It can happen any moment
Without reason or rhyme
It might be right around the corner
Or it’ll come up from behind
A picture that I thought would fade
I still clearly see
When the thought of you
Catches up with me”

Jimmy enjoys himself with another few Woodie Guthrie versions, Salvation Train and Sideline Woman. They sandwich one of his own, Ramblin Sky, which at first glance seems to be a standard Blues wail, but look a little closer…

“I fell head first without permission
Into the horizon open wide
Where I will not be forsaken
Underneath that big old ramblin’ sky”

A profound sense of empathy follows in a cover of You’re Gonna Make me Lonesome when you Go from Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks. As with all the rest of the covers on this album, absolutely cracking…

The album finishes with a curveball instrumental from Jimmy and the band, and then one of the finest songs on the album, a Tim Easton cover called Goodbye Amsterdam

“Goodbye Amsterdam, I didn’t want to leave just yet…”

It’s so very clear that Jimmy LaFave didn’t want to leave just yet. But in knowing that it was inevitable he has left us with a catalogue of work that should keep us going for some time. My initial pressure of having to like this album are forgotten. Under any normal circumstance, this is a great album. Under these circumstances, it is profoundly brilliant.

It seems that Jimmy was adored by anyone and everyone as a writer, singer, musician and above all, an honest to goodness human being. This collection of songs is an incredible testimony to a man who was at his strongest when he should have been at his weakest. Rest in Peace Jimmy LaFave.


CD1
1.  Let My Love Open The Door - 4:47 
2.  Minstrel Boy Howling At The Moon - 4:39 
3.  Peace Town - 5:15 
4.  What Good Am I - 4:20 
5.  Help Me Make It Through The Day - 6:54 
6.  I May Be Used (But I Ain't Used Up) - 4:21 
7.  My Back Pages - 6:57 
8.  My Oklahoma Home - 3:41 
9.  A Thousand By My Side - 4:03 
10.  Already Gone - 7:21 

CD2
1.  It Makes No Difference - 6:53 
2.  Don't Go To Strangers - 5:04 
3.  When The Thought Of You Catches Up With Me - 5:30 
4.  Salvation Train - 4:06 
5.  Rambling Sky - 5:06 
6.  Sideline Woman - 4:31 
7.  The Promised Land - 2:41 
8.  You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome - 5:21 
9.  Untitled - 4:45 
10.  Goodbye Amsterdam - 2:44


Credits
Jimmy LaFave – Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
Jesse LaFave - Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Baritone Guitar
John Inmon - Electric Guitar
Glenn Schuetz - Bass Guitar
Bobby Kallus - Drums
Jane Ellen Bryant - Background Vocals
Jaimee Harris - Background Vocals
Stefano Intellisano - Piano, Organ, Accordion, Rhodes
Kym Warner - Mandolin
Warren Hood - Violin
Andrew Pressman - Bass
Katie Marie - Drums
Will Taylor - Lead Viola
Tony Rogers - Cello
Javier Chaparro - Violin
Brian Standefer - Cello
Larry Wilson – Lead Guitar
Phil Hurley - Guitar solo

Notes
Released: 13 Jul 2018
Format: 2 × CD, Album
Genre: Rock, Folk, World, & Country
Length: 98:58

Label - Music Road Records