Candles and Cale: Party Time

His songs have been covered by the likes of Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Kansas, Tom Petty, Allman Brothers, Johnny Cash and more. A no-flash, just pick guitarist, he began playing what would be known as the Tulsa Sound...a blending a 1950's to 1960's country, rock, blues and rockabilly. The group of musicians creating that sound also included Leon Russell, Elvin Bishop, David Gates and Dwight Twilley, among others.

Today we focus on the birthday boy, JJ Cale.

Back to the songs. After Clapton recorded two of Cale's songs, "After Midnight" and "Cocaine," Cale finally started getting noticed by people outside the music community. Hell, one of his songs, "Travelin' Light" was even played to wake up the crews of the Space Shuttle and International Space Station before one of their spacewalks. The man has played with everyone, and the list of musicians influenced by his songs grows daily.

Let's taste a few.

"Crazy Mama" ...his biggest single, laid-back and bluesy
"They Call Me the Breeze" ...covered by Skynyrd, taste a little JJ with Clapton sittin' in
"After Midnight" ...a songwriter's pure version
"Cajun Moon" ...sweet sample of Tulsa sound
"Down to Memphis" ...delicious track off his latest CD Roll On

JJ Cale. Blow out the candles and play some blues.

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