[2015-06-22] Bill Wyman "Back To Basics" (Proper UK)

Linda · **Posted:** Sat Apr 18, 2015 6:20 pm

Description
Back To Basics does exactly what it says on the tin. It is unashamedly stripped back. The snappy lyrics are refreshingly audible and the instrumentation is clean, subtle and accomplished.

Back To Basics wears its influences on its sleeve – Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, JJ Cale – and there's more than a passing nod to Bill's own English background. It is that rare thing, a meld of styles and genres that actually work together - uplifting in a jaunty, dancey way and pensive in a bluesy, narrative way.

As might be expected from one of the world's best known bass players Back To Basics drives along with a rhythmic muscularity, and then slows the pace for more autobiographical lyric and melody. It is an album that warrants repeated play. It is also an album that's long overdue…

Bill Wyman's last solo UK album, Bill Wyman, was released in 1982. Back To Basics comprises only his fourth UK solo release. But Bill has not been idle of course. 31 years in the Rolling Stones, author of seven learned books, globally exhibited photographer, metal detecting expert with his own brand of metal detector, producer, composer for film and TV and founder of the very successful Rhythm Kings who release CDs and tour regularly - he has had a pretty full calendar. It was only when archiving old demos last year he realised he had around 60 songs he'd never released. He chose three songs that needed reworking and did just that. He put them together with a bunch of brand new songs and went into his studio to record them.

The CD comprises 12 tracks in total, eight of which are new songs. Musicians joining Bill in the studio include long time collaborator/guitarist Terry Taylor, Guy Fletcher (Mark Knopfler), Graham Broad and Robbie McIntosh while co-production credit goes to Andy Wright (Jeff Beck, Eurythmics, Simply Red).

On Bill Wyman's Back To Basics you get music that's the real deal...and you're all the better for it.

Tracklist
1. What & How & If & When & Why
2. I Lost My Ring
3. Love, Love, Love
4. Stuff (Can't Get Enough) (Back To Basics Version 2015)
5. Running Back To You
6. She's Wonderful
7. Seventeen (Back To Basics Version 2015)
8. I'll Pull You Through (Back To Basics Version 2015)
9. November
10. Just A Friend Of Mine
11. It's A Lovely Day
12. I Got Time

Amazon USA
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VTHKWIS/?tag=imwan-20

Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00VTHKWIS/?tag=imwan-21

Linda · **Posted:** Sat Apr 18, 2015 6:21 pm

Quote:

Bill Wyman Releasing First Solo Album in 33 Years

Former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman will release Back to Basics, his first solo album in 33 years, on June 22nd via Proper Records.

Per a press release, the stripped-back album counts JJ Cale, Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen among its influences, and came about after Wyman found approximately 60 unreleased songs while archiving old demos last year. He reworked five of those tracks, placing them alongside eight new songs.

Wyman was joined in the studio by guitarist, and longtime collaborator, Terry Taylor, as well as Guy Fletcher, Graham Broad and Robbie McIntosh. The album was co-produced by Andy Wright (Jeff Beck, Eurythmics).

Back to Basics marks Wyman's first solo album since his 1982 self-titled effort and is only his fourth solo release overall. "Initially I thought I'm a bit old for this," Wyman noted in the statement. "But then I thought all the old blues musicians played till they dropped so why don't I give it a go."

Despite the significant gap in solo material, Wyman has regularly toured and recorded with his band, the Rhythm Kings. He's also composed for TV and film, penned several books, held photo exhibitions, patented his own metal detector, and, in 2013, released, Bill Wyman's Scrapbook. The latter was a limited edition coffee-table book filled with images from his London childhood up through his final full show with the Rolling Stones in 1990.

"I've always been interested in multiple things since I was a teenager," Wyman told Rolling Stone in 2013 of his Renaissance man ways. "I've always been interested in ancient cultures, archaeology, astronomy, photography, art – and as I grew up, I tried to learn more and embellish those things by reading books and documentaries and films.

"When I was in the band for 30 years, that was very difficult, because I didn't have the opportunity to spend much time doing that. But I did meet great artists in France, like Marc Chagall. I learned about art and I met historians. I met scientists. And I went to look at the stars in observatories, and it just opened my life to many, many different other aspects."

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... s-20150416

Linda · **Posted:** Mon May 25, 2015 4:31 pm

Simon · **Joined:** 26 Oct 2006 **Posts:** 59406

Egad! It's as if Leonard Cohen and Billy Bragg were fused into one person during a Star Trek transporter accident. I liked it!

JohnG · 03 Aug 2006

It's no Je Suis En Rock Star!

Invisible Pedestrian · **Joined:** 24 Sep 2006 **Posts:** 26163

Ouch.

[2015-06-22] Bill Wyman "Back To Basics" (Proper UK)

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