“We Are Only Riders” The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project

I didn’t have a clue who Jeffrey Lee Pierce was when I ordered this from Piccadilly. I was attracted to the album by the outstanding roster of artists who were appearing; Nick Cave, Mark Lanegan, The Raveonettes, Debbie Harry, Lydia Lunch, David Eugene Edwards, The Sadies, Isobel Campbell, Crippled Black Phoenix, Mick Harvey,  Barry Adamson….and the list goes on.

I guessed with a list of some of the greatest contemporary musicians of our time, this wasn’t an album to miss.

When it arrived, I was still none the wiser. I looked at the list of tracks first and noticed that of the 16 tracks listed, in fact there were only 10 different tracks. Hmmm. So a few of the tracks were interpreted several times. Out with the sleeve insert, and I found.

1. Jeffrey Lee Pierce was the founder of The Gun Club
2. One of JLPs friends, Cypress Grove, found these songs on a cassette
3. The cassette was the early workings for an album the two friends were working on

So I have no reference point for The Gun Club. I do not own any albums by them. This was going to be interesting. All I knew was that The Gun Club were a US punk band.

Today I have spent the entire afternoon painting my dining area. Mrs. P is in Ireland visiting her family. So I decided this was the ideal time to explore this album. Just me. Nothing else to do but paint and listen. Perfect. I put the CD on at around 2pm, it’s now 7:15pm and I’m still listening to it.

All I can say is what a talent he was. Every track on this album is phenomenal. The artists have obviously made each track a labour of love. You can hear the affection each artist has for their allocated track. There is care and an attention to detail audible in each piece that you seldom get in a “tribute/covers” album. This is obviously much more.

I’m not going to review each track individually. I cannot fault any track on here. The Nick Cave and Debbie Harry duet stands out, as does Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell. (Incidently, the same song!). Crippled Black Phoenix show that their musciainship can cover anything from drone to country. After a long time Lydia Lunch reaffirms her stature as the great punk/post-punk chanteuse. I can’t gush enough for this album.

David Eugene Edwards and Crippled Black Phoenix are currently half-way through “Just Like A Mexican Love”. Got to be heard to be believed.

What can I say. I’m going to be looking into The Gun Club. I’ll be tracking down more JLP material.

I cannot recommend this enough.

P.

~ by pwdxb on April 2, 2010.