There are a lot of famous partnerships in the rock music world—Lennon and McCartney, Jagger and Richards, Dylan and the Band—but there's also a lot of partnerships that tend to slip under the public's radar. Artists write songs for each other, pitch in on an album here and there, listen to each other's playing and modify their style in response.
One of those partnerships is between guitar legend Eric Clapton and country-blues artist J.J. Cale. Cale is the author of Clapton's classics ""After Midnight"" and ""Cocaine,"" and Clapton has said in numerous interviews that Cale was one of the chief inspirations for his own style. Their new duet album The Road to Escondido is the culmination of their friendship and musical skill, and could possibly be the most listenable album of the year.
Clapton set a new standard for duet albums with his 2000 collaboration with B.B. King Riding with the King and The Road to Escondido continues that trend, albeit in a vastly different style. Where Riding with the King had the feel of a passionate live concert, Escondido plays like Clapton and Cale took a road trip, stopped at every single dance hall and jazz club they could find and jammed with the house band.
It's that meandering jam feel that permeates the whole album, with no over-production, experimental songs or obscure poetic lyrics. ""Sporting Life Blues"" is a slow blues song with gentle harmonicas and Clapton's pure organic ""slowhand"" guitar playing, while ""Dead End Road"" is a song with rapid fiddles and twanging guitar play that demands listeners break into a square dance. Like Bob Dylan's Modern Times, Clapton and Cale made a country-blues record that can't be placed in either of those categories, remixing and regenerating genres at the same time.
The hidden gem in the album, however, is the keyboard talents of Billy Preston, who passed away in June and made his last recorded appearance on Escondido. Preston was one of the best piano players in popular music and his final performance—particularly on ""Missing Person""—is nothing less than a blissful marriage of talent between his keys and the guitars of Clapton and Cale.
Preston's not the only guest performer on the album, as John Mayer teams up with Clapton for ""Hard to Thrill."" It's got a different feel than the other tracks thanks to some sharper guitar picking and Preston's brilliant arpeggios, but it doesn't feel out of place. In fact, it feels like Mayer's forming a new link in the chain by learning from Clapton in the same way Clapton learned from Cale.
In the end, Escondido is an album that's excellent not because there are several distinctive songs but because it's an album that keeps the same feel and energy until the last track. Clapton and Cale may be on the road to Escondido, but with the group they're traveling with and the comfort in each other's company, there's no hurry—on their part or the listeners—to get there.
