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Although their partnership isn't one of the more ballyhooed ones in the rock realm, these two singer-guitarists have been collaborating fruitfully for more than three decades -- with Clapton acting as the public face of that collaboration via his enduring versions of such Cale compositions as "Cocaine" and "After Midnight." The Road to Escondido, their first full-length recording together -- and Clapton's first duets collection since he teamed with B.B. King on Riding with the King -- is a warm, inviting collection of songs that maximizes the strengths of both participants. Cale contributes the lion's share of the compositions, and his fingerprints are immediately recognizable on songs like the sultry "Danger," which positively envelops the listener in its humid, swampy ambience. There's a similarly burnished feel to "Don't Cry Sister," a classic blues shuffle that slinks along more stealthily than one might expect, until Clapton unspools one of his effortlessly virtuosic solos. Slowhand takes the lead -- vocally and spiritually -- on a number of the disc's tracks, most effectively on the gentle "Three Little Girls" and the woozy "Last Will and Testament," but he's not averse to sharing the spotlight, giving Cale some room to stretch out vocally on "Sporting Life Blues" and bringing John Mayer in to punch up the sinewy "Hard to Thrill." As depicted in these songs, The Road to Escondido isn't a superhighway -- it's the kind of two-lane path that makes a leisurely amble a simple pleasure that's easy to enjoy.
CONDITION: NEW
TRACK LISTING
1. Danger
2. Heads in Georgia
3. Missing Person
4. When This War Is Over
5. Sporting Life Blues
6. Dead End Road
7. It's Easy
8. Hard to Thrill
9. Anyway the Wind Blows
10. Three Little Girls
11. Don't Cry Sister
12. Last Will and Testament
13. Who Am I Telling You?
14. Ride the River
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