Bud: JJ Cale--a small appreciation

Who? JJ Cale? Wasn't he the drummer for the Gimpy Acrobats band? No, actually, he was the man whom Eric Clapton picked when asked, "Who, living today, do you most admire?" If you had seen the PBS special on Clapton's Tour of the Blues guitar extravaganza, you would have seen the two do a magical duel on Cale's "After Midnight". Cale falls into that indefinable category where blues meets rock meets Mexi-Cali. He and Ry Cooder must have separated at birth. They both investigated America's music genres. Cale has never turned out a record that made the top 100 on Billboard. And he doesn't give a d***. Nor do I.

I managed to talk to him after a concert he gave in a Miami Beach club. He only played one of his hits, but he turned "Call me the Breeze" into a six minute barnburner. The rest of the tunes I had never heard before--and I had all his music. A totally astonishing performance of unknown music ensued. When he was packing up, I caught him and asked, "Why don't you make a live concert record?" He turned and replied, "Son, I'm too f...king famous as it is." Well, make that the truth, blues brothers.

© Bud Talkinghorn