Jimmy Webb - Just Across the River
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CD Details
Artist: Jimmy WebbEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2010-06-29
Music Label: E1 Music
Soundtracks:
- Oklahoma Nights (Vince Gill)
- Wichita Lineman (Billy Joel)
- If You See Me Getting Smaller (Willie Nelson)
- Galveston (Lucinda Williams)
- Do What You Gotta Do
- Cowboy Hall Of Fame
- P.F. Sloan (Jackson Browne)
- Highwayman (Mark Knopfler)
- By The Time I Get To Phoenix (Glen Campbell)
- I Was Too Busy Loving You (J.D. Souther)
- Where Words End (Michael McDonald)
- It Won t Bring Her Back
- All I Know (Linda Ronstadt)
Music reviews of Just Across the River
Music Review: Not a very original idea, but solid overall...
Rating: 3 Stars
It is hard to be truly unique in popular music. Jimmy Webb comes about as close as anyone. He is the Godson of Brian Wilson, Cole Porter, George Gershwin and, just a tad, Hank Williams...and the step brother of Tom Waits. Webb's songs, if they can be defined by one characteristic (and they really can't - I am over simplifying), are centered in melancholy. Structurally, stylistically, they can be downright weird. In the most beautiful way. Listen to "Wichita Lineman" (Glen Campbell's towering, sonic version). He also represents an era long gone, try as some youngsters might to replicate it. Jimmy Webb is southern California. The Beach Boys. The Mammas and the Pappas. Tie dye t-shirts and sandals. Blonde bikini'd girls who break your heart. "Drinkin' margaritas all night in the old cantina." Jimmy Webb is laid back southern California pop's soul (though I understand he now lives in New York...yikes!).
On this record, some of Webb's classic (and some not so classic) numbers are taken on by some notable artists. To get the not-so-good stuff out of the way. "By The Time I Get To Phoenix", with Webb's best collaborator of days passed, Glen Campbell, is an obligatory version. Campbell should have been given something meatier to sink his teeth into (what could he possibly do with a song he has probably sung - literally - thousands of times). "Oklahoma Nights", with Vince Gill, sounds like Webb was forced, at gunpoint, to write a song for modern country radio. Ugh. Most disappointing is Billy Joel's contribution to the song that is widely considered Webb's masterpiece, the aforementioned "Wichita Lineman". Maybe we know too much about Joel, a man who made his bones singing with New York attitude and, often, with New York subject matter, to hear him sing about a lonesome lineman working on the desolate plains of Kansas. It just doesn't work.
Now, Jackson Browne's contribution to the absolutely wonderful-weirdo-quasi-psychedelic-sentimental mini masterpiece "P. F. Sloan" is fantastic. In addition, Webb sounds especially fired up on this tune and stretches his limited vocal range to exemplify his belief in what he is singing. When you hear Browne's always earnest voice kick in "I have been seeking P.F. Sloan"...well, it's almost enough to make you believe again. The very underrated singer J.D. Souther (more widely known for his songwriting contributions to the Eagles) brings a wonderful touch to a little known, but beautiful, Webb country flavored song, "I Was Too Busy Loving You". Willie Nelson chips in admirably with Webb on his delightfully weird "If You See Me Getting Smaller" ("We have spent a million dollars to find out what we've made"). That song, as much as any, is representative of Webb's weirdo-hippie-beautiful lyrical style:
God bless old Philadelphia
They were standing in the rain
Out in front of the Main Point
A wet and lonely train
Who knows who they came to see
A mad man full of beer
A four piece band and a charter bus
My border-line career
Sing those lyrics to a quasi-blue grass arrangement and, well, it's good to know Jimmy is still a little weird. It's absolutely beautiful.
Webb does a great solo job on "Do What You Gotta Do". Lucinda Williams' weather beaten voice on "Galveston" brings a new variable to that anti-war classic...and a different perspective. "All I Know" is given wonderful minimal pop effect by Webb and Linda Ronstadt (after Glen Campbell, maybe the best interpreter of Webb's music). After repeated listening (I was not sure at first) Mark Knopfler's input on "The Highwayman" brought something new to that great tune.
Some lesser known, but beautiful, Webb tunes like "Postcard From Paris", "Adios" and "No Signs of Age" (the latter still waiting for a definitive version to be recorded) are left out. "Macarthur Park" is also omitted. That much debated song has been the object of ridicule and praise for forty years. No one was up to taking it on for "Just Across The River".
Not sure who could be considered the heir to Jimmy Webb's songwriting style. He was one of many back in the day, though he was better than almost all the others - truly a poet writing pop songs. This record celebrates that accomplishment. Not a home run - there are even some strike outs here - but a very solid work altogether and certainly a work that provides impetus to look into Webb's unique career even further.
(Note: Webb's songs have been covered by everyone from Sinatra to Elvis. He has written hits for The 5th Dimension, Art Garfunkel, Waylon Jennings, Donna Summer, The Highwaymen...to name a few. That said, if you want to get to the heart of Webb's beautiful songwriting, the man to see is Glen Campbell. Campbell's deft interpretations of Webb's unusual songs are unmatched by any other artist. There are the well known sonic classics "Wichita Lineman", "Galveston" and "By The Time I Get To Phoenix", but lesser known gems like "Where's The Playground, Susie", "Still Within The Sound of My Voice", and "Light Years" resonate almost as strongly. Particularly worthy of investigation is the great "Reunion" LP from 1974. If you are interested in Webb's songs, Glen Campbell is the place to start.)
Description of Just Across the River
The critical acclaim composer Jimmy Webb has received during his more than forty years of success is as remarkable as the accomplishments they honor: Webb is the only artist to ever receive Grammy awards for music, lyrics, and orchestration; he is a member of the National Academy of Popular Music Songwriter s Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriter s Hall of Fame; and, according to BMI, his By The Time I Get To Phoenix, (sung on the new album in duet with Glen Campbell---the first time the two have ever recorded together) has been the third most performed song in the last fifty years. Webb s Wichita Lineman (performed here with Billy Joel and Jerry Douglas) has been listed in the Top Fifty of MOJO Magazine s worldwide survey of the best one hundred singles of all time, and was singled out in the Oct/Nov 2001 issue of Blender as The Greatest Song Ever.Webb was known initially for the instant classics he provided for such artists as Campbell, Richard Harris ( MacArthur Park, Didn t We ), the Fifth Dimension ( Up, Up and Away, This Is Your Life ), and Johnny Maestro s Brooklyn Bridge ( Worst That Could Happen. ) Jimmy also topped the Country charts when Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson hit #1 with The Highwayman, a ballad which won him yet another Grammy for Best Country Song of the Year, and a CMA Award for Single Of The Year. On Just Across The River, Jimmy shares the mike with Mark Knopfler on this tune. Linda Ronstadt, who has recorded a multitude of Webb songs throughout her recording career, included four of his efforts on her double platinum album, Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. She s on board here for a heartwarming, intimate closing duet on All I Know, the Webb standard made famous by Art Garfunkel. And that s just the beginning. As a performer Jimmy has released numerous critically-acclaimed albums over the years, earning distinguished reviews in all of the major publications, and unqualified praise following his appearances in concert halls and top cabaret venues. But he has never attempted a project like Just Across The River, where his singing AND songwriting is celebrated by the collaborations of his peers, like Jackson Browne and Willie Nelson, as well as artists who have revered his music for years, like Lucinda Williams, Michael McDonald, and Vince Gill. There has never been a songwriter like Jimmy Webb. And there has never been an album of his songs like Just Across The River.
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