unsung – J. J. Cale’s Troubadour

Check any biographical or critical… Check any biographical or critical account on the career of J.J. Cale, and you will inevitably find an attempt to sum up his talent in the phrase “laid back.”

Starting with Naturally, his debut, Cale showed a remarkable talent for recreating the early folk and country method of combining careful instrumentation and lyrical planning with a mellow and improvisational attitude that made his music friendly and accessible. So even if he can’t be credited with inventing the “laid back” style, no one can deny that he capitalized upon it better than just about anyone.

But in Troubadour, his fourth studio album, he captures it completely. The whispered lyrics, the morphing, almost synthesized sounds of his guitar and the light, jazz-like tapping of the cymbal gives the music a feeling that after every song, Cale will wake up and go, “Did I do that?”

And that’s just the fast songs. On his slower melodies, the calmness could easily send the listener straight to Beta waves.

Considering the small following that Cale still carries with him 25 years after the Troubadour release, it seems nearly impossible that the mellow underpinnings of his steady guitar and his always handy pair of oh-so-cool sunglasses could be as influential as it was to classic rock and still be as obscure as it is to the average music lover.

Track six, “Cocaine,” is a standard example. Though commonly attributed to Eric Clapton, this, like “After Midnight” a few years earlier, is a Cale classic. And Mark Knopfler’s distinct voice throughout his run with Dire Straits and into his solo career is often considered a direct antecedent to Cale.

And yet, the enjoyment of Cale seems to depend on his semi-underground status. The mild taste of mainstream supported by familiar and still unknown talent gives a sense of elitism, that famous singsong boast of “I know something you don’t know.”