Sweet Release Reese Wynans and Friends

• 1 Crossfire 05:04
• 2 Say What! 05:50
• 3 That Driving Beat 03:46
• 4 You’re Killing My Love 05:46
• 5 Sweet Release 06:59
• 6 Shape I'm In 04:29
• 7 Hard to Be 05:24
• 8 Riviera Paradise 07:25
• 9 Take the Time 05:18
• 10 So Much Trouble 05:24
• 11 I’ve Got a Right to be Blue 04:47
• 12 Soul Island 06:37
• 13 Blackbird 03:40
• Total Runtime 01:10:29

Info zu Sweet Release

Nach 50 Jahren als Musiker tritt der legendäre Keyboarder und Organist Reese Wynans mit seinem ersten Soloalbum „Reese Wynans and Friends: Sweet Release“ ins Rampenlicht.

Reese Wynans hat seit den späten 60er Jahren mit den Größten gespielt, von Duane Allman über Boz Scaggs bis hin zu Jerry Jeff Walker und Carole King, bevor er als Mitglied von Stevie Ray Vaughans Band „Double Trouble“ berühmt wurde. Seit 2015 ist er fester Bestandteil von Joe Bonamassas Band und tritt vor einem weltweiten Publikum auf.

Auf „Sweet Release“ wird Reese von seinen „Double Trouble“-Bandkollegen Tommy Shannon und Chris Layton, den Gitarristen Joe Bonamassa, Kenny Wayne Shepherd und Doyle Bramhall II, den Sängern Sam Moore und Bonnie Bramlett sowie vielen anderen begleitet, um Songs aus seiner Zeit mit Stevie Ray Vaughan sowie weitere Favoriten, wie die Bluesmusiker Otis Rush und Tampa Red, zu würdigen.

„Diese Songs sind wie Fenster in verschiedene Epochen und Phasen meiner Karriere“, erklärt Wynans. „Es ist eine Sammlung von Songs, die ich in der Vergangenheit mit anderen Musikern gespielt habe, und sie rückt Blues-Künstler ins Rampenlicht, die meiner Meinung nach etwas mehr Anerkennung verdienen.“

In den späten 60er Jahren spielte Wynans zusammen mit den „Second Coming“, einer aufstrebenden Band aus Florida, deren Mitglieder später zu den Größen des Blues-Rock zählen sollten. „Dickey Betts war einer unserer Gitarristen, und unser Bassist war Berry Oakley“, erzählt er. „Duane Allman war damals in Muscle Shoals und kam am Wochenende vorbei, um bei uns einzuspielen. Für ‚Sweet Release‘ haben wir den alten Les-Dudek-Song ‚Take The Time‘ gecovert, der mich an meine Zeit in Jacksonville zu Beginn der Southern-Rock-Ära erinnert.“

Andere Songs sind eine Hommage an die 70er Jahre, als der Keyboarder an der Seite von Boz Scaggs zu finden war, während sich der aufstrebende Songwriter an der Westküste einen Namen machte. Für Wynans strahlte „Sweet Release“ aus Scaggs’ gefeiertem Repertoire am hellsten, und Jahrzehnte später liefert es den Titelsong für „Sweet Release“.

Natürlich wäre die Trackliste von „Sweet Release“ nicht vollständig ohne eine Hommage an den großartigen Stevie Ray Vaughan. Im Jahr 1985 veränderte sich Wynans’ Welt für immer, als der legendäre texanische Bluesmusiker ihn in die Band Double Trouble holte, um die epochalen Alben „Soul To Soul“ und „In Step“ aufzunehmen. „Es war unglaublich, mit diesen Jungs auf einer Bühne zu spielen“, erinnert er sich. „Ich muss sagen, dass ich Stevie so gut wie nie eine falsche Note spielen gehört habe. Er war jeden einzelnen Abend in Topform. Die Stevie-Songs auf ‚Sweet Release‘ – ‚Crossfire‘, ‚Say What!‘, ‚Riviera Paradise‘ und ‚Hard To Be‘ – sind unsere Hommage an ihn.“

Reese Wynans, Keyboards, Flügel
Joe Bonamassa, Gitarre
Jack Pearson, Gitarre
Josh Smith, Gitarre
Keb' Mo', Gitarre, Gesang
Doyle Bramhall II, Gitarre, Gesang
Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Gitarren
The Texacali Horns
Lee Thornburg, Trompete
Sam Moore, Gesang
Mike Farris, Gesang
Noah Hunt, Gesang
Paulie Cerra, Gesang, Saxophon
Mike Henderson, Mundharmonika
Tommy Shannon, Bass
Michael Rhodes, Bass
Travis Carlton, Bass
Chris Layton, Schlagzeug
Greg Morrow, Schlagzeug
Lamar Carter, Schlagzeug
Jade MacRae, Begleitgesang
Juanita Tippins, Begleitgesang
Mahalia Barnes, Begleitgesang
The Boca Orchestra

Reese Wynans
is everywhere. Scan the history books and he's there on every page: a vital strand of rock ‘n' roll DNA, present at a thousand cultural flashpoints. Over the last five decades, you might have found him cutting his teeth with the early nucleus of the Allman Brothers Band. Taking the stage with Boz Scaggs. Saving the '80s blues scene with Stevie Ray Vaughan's Double Trouble. Bringing the blues to the people with Joe Bonamassa. Adding his thumbprint on piano and B3 to the work of Larry Carlton, Delbert McClinton, Los Lonely Boys – and hundreds more.

During a celebrated career that recently saw him inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, the one omission on Wynans' résumé was that this fabled keys man had never released a solo record – until now. Sweet Release is the album we always knew Wynans had up his sleeve: a glorious collision of stellar musicianship, classic material given fresh mojo and a glittering roll-call of star guests – including Keb' Mo', Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Warren Haynes and Bonamassa himself on production – that confirms the deep respect Wynans commands on the scene.

To play Sweet Release is to be led by the songs through Wynans' fascinating backstory. His roots in '50s Florida are given a tip of the hat in the form of two tracks by Tampa Red: the local blues legend whose piano-men, Thomas Dorsey and Big Maceo, would figure highly amongst Wynans' early influences. "I loved the tinkly old blues piano stuff," he remembers. "Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnnie Johnson with Chuck Berry – something about the piano always did it for me. When I got in my first band, The Prowlers, I bought an electric piano and I never thought about doing anything else. It was the way my brain worked. I wanted to play piano in a rock ‘n' roll band."

Other songs salute the '70s, when the keys man could be found flanking Boz Scaggs as the rising songwriter established his reputation on the West Coast. For Wynans, one song in Scaggs' acclaimed catalogue shone brightest, and decades later, it gives Sweet Release its title track. "I thought it was a great song back then," he reflects, "and through the years, I've been waiting for people to cover Sweet Release. But no one ever did, so I suggested it for this album."

Of course, the Sweet Release tracklisting wouldn't be complete without a nod to the great Stevie Ray Vaughan. In 1985, Wynans' world changed forever when the iconic Texas bluesman drafted him into the Double Trouble band for the era-defining Soul To Soul and In Step albums. "It was unbelievable to play on a stage with those guys," he remembers. "I have to tell you that I hardly ever heard Stevie play a bad note. He was on his game every single night. It was daunting, because I had to step up every night as well. And of course, the Stevie songs on Sweet Release – Crossfire, Say What!, Riviera Paradise and Hard To Be – are our tribute to him."

In 1990, SRV's tragic death robbed the blues world of an all-time great and Wynans of a cherished friend. But the keys man bravely brushed himself down and walked on, soon becoming one of Nashville's most in-demand players with credits for headline acts including Lee Roy Parnell, Brooks & Dunn and Hank Williams Jr. In 2015, the seed of Sweet Release was planted when post-millennial blues master Joe Bonamassa called up with a tantalising offer. "He wanted to do a series of shows at Red Rocks where we would feature the music of Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters," says Wynans. "And y'know, that's right up my alley. So things went on from there."

Sweet Release feels like a musician coming home. Wynans was already a familiar face at Ocean Way: the Nashville studio where he'd previously added fairy-dust to endless tracks for other artists. And when sessions began for his own solo album, it was a joy to reconnect with the Double Trouble rhythm section of Tommy Shannon (bass) and Chris Layton (drums) – plus modern guitar great Kenny Wayne Shepherd – and lay down stinging contemporary takes of SRV gems like Crossfire and Say What!. "Everybody knew the songs," Wynans recalls. "There was hardly any need to even run through them – it was perfect right from the start, and we played each song three times at the max. There's a lot of people who play Stevie songs and try to sound like he used to. With Kenny Wayne, it's like he has the same DNA that Stevie had. He just wanted to rip it – and I just loved what he brought to it."

Meanwhile, Bonamassa lent his own famed guitar skills to SRV moments like Riviera Paradise. "I'd always thought of that song as a movie soundtrack," considers Wynans of the In Step highlight, "so I wanted to do it with all the strings on it. And I wanted people to realise that it's OK to play that song, that it's not some untouchable song nobody should ever play. Joe's solo on Riviera Paradise was beautiful. His solo on Tampa Red's So Much Trouble was very fiery, too, and so was his vocal."

Even on the year's most star-studded record, there's one name that shines brightest. For a full half-century, Reese Wynans has been the engine-room behind America's greatest roots music. Now, with Sweet Release, this modest legend has delivered the long-awaited solo album that puts his own name top of the bill and places his world-class talent in the spotlight. "I've never had an album out with my name on it before," he considers, "so I'm very excited. I'd like this record to make people feel happy and celebrate the music. Because that's what we were doing…"

Dieses Album enthält kein Booklet