Review: JD Souther, “Black Rose” and “Home By Dawn” Expanded Editions
Omnivore Recordings continues to mine one of the great underrated catalogues in contemporary pop-rock with two more titles from singer-songwriter JD Souther. Black Rose (1976) has been joined on compact disc by Home by Dawn (1984) with both titles splendidly remastered and featuring previously unreleased bonus tracks. These definitive reissues aren’t to be missed.
The wide-ranging Black Rose, originally released on Asylum Records, remains Souther’s most diverse and expansive musical statement as well as his first to utilize significant orchestration. Produced in lavish fashion by Peter Asher, it utilized the studio to the fullest as Souther’s already-assured songcraft – largely centered around his incisive lyrical observations on relationships – continued to mature.
One would have to be a confident, expressive vocalist to welcome the dream team of background singers featured on album opener “Banging My Head Against the Moon”: David Crosby, Art Garfunkel and Andrew Gold! The lightly funky, tropical rhythm of the stage-setting “Moon” is shared by “Your Turn Now,” featuring Souther’s own impressively-stacked harmony vocals.
Heartbreak courses through Black Rose, never more beautifully so than on the rueful “Doors Swing Open.” The intimate, tender and conversational “If You Have Crying Eyes,” sung with Linda Ronstadt, returns to the country-rock milieu of John David Souther (reissued last month by Omnivore) but gains gravitas with David Campbell’s string arrangement. Another gem planted squarely in SoCal Eagles-esque territory is “Simple Man, Simple Dream,” memorably recorded by Linda Ronstadt. (Souther reveals in Scott Schinder’s fine liner notes that “Simple Man” was the first song on which he felt comfortable writing as a character, in this case from a working-class background.) Ronstadt is also associated with “Faithless Love,” Souther’s first genuine solo standard and probably his best-known song. On Black Rose, it gets a stately accompaniment from horns and strings; a previously unreleased live version featuring just Souther and his acoustic guitar is also included in the bonus material.
Joe Walsh adds bluesy slide guitar to “Baby Come Home,” one of the tracks that best showcases how Souther the lyricist would bend and transform a familiar theme into something wholly new. Souther accomplished this musically, as well. Black Rose welcomed a pair of accomplished jazz artists to bring different colors to its palette. Stanley Clarke plays prominent, evocative double bass on “Silver Blue,” a moody, gentle ballad also enhanced by subtle strings and brass. Donald Byrd, on flugelhorn, anchors the sleek “Midnight Prowl.” Souther’s friendship with Ronstadt’s brother, a police chief, inspired the atypical rumination on the effects of the job on a policeman’s psyche and his relationships. Lowell George of Little Feat is heard on this track’s distinctive slide. Along with “Midnight Prowl,” the title song “Black Rose” has an even more urgent jazz-rock feel. Ned Doheny, Don Henley and the late Glenn Frey join Souther for the spot-on harmonies, and Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar and Waddy Wachtel each occupy one channel with their dueling guitars.
Bonus material on Black Rose is copious, especially when it comes to demo recordings. You’ll hear both full band and solo piano demos of “Songs of Love” which would appear on Souther’s Columbia album You’re Only Lonely; the demo of “Border Town” from the Souther-Furay-Hillman Band’s 1974 debut; a beautiful demo of “Can Almost See It,” the opening track of Ronstadt’s Asylum debut Don’t Cry Now; an otherwise-unheard instrumental “Texas Nights and Mexican Moons” with the composer on piano; and the quirkily humorous Lowell George solo track “Cheek to Cheek” (not the Irving Berlin standard but a song by Van Dyke Parks and Lowell) from George’s 1979 solo LP Thanks, I’ll Eat It Here.
Souther’s next album arrived not on Asylum, but on Columbia. You’re Only Lonely (which yielded a No. 1 AC/Top 10 Pop title track and isn’t included in this reissue program) followed Black Rose in 1979, as did the hit duet “Her Town Too” with James Taylor, but Souther otherwise laid low for the remainder of his Columbia contract. After an absence of five years, he returned to solo recording in 1984 with Home by Dawn on the Warner Bros. label. It would, amazingly, be his final album until 2008 – but he certainly went out on a high note with another singular entry in his catalogue. Recorded in Nashville, Home fused the sounds of rockabilly and early rock-and-roll with a contemporary (read: 1980s) pop production style on a typically-strong set of Souther originals graced with his burnished vocals.
Don Henley joins Souther on the rip-roaringly energetic opener, “Home by Dawn,” and the loose, rollicking rock-and-roll spirit continues on tracks like the catchy ode to a special “Night” (“Did you ever see such a night?”) and “Say You Will.” Linda Ronstadt, of course, had a major hit with her revival of Buddy Holly’s “It’s So Easy.” It sounds as it if were so easy for her to return to those comfortable shoes duetting with Souther on the latter – a taut, Holly-esque rocker written by Souther and Kortchmar. “Bad News Travels Fast” is the singer-songwriter at his edgiest, complete with jagged guitar and slick production. It’s a bit reminiscent of Henley’s eighties best, and Don shows up here, too, joining Eagles partner-in-crime Timothy B. Schmit in the rich vocal blend.
But Souther is most at Home here with a gorgeous string of ballads. “Go Ahead and Rain” still figures in his concert appearances; it’s not hard to see why. Its instantly memorable melody, tender lyric, affectingly heartfelt vocal and polished production should have added up to a hit single. In Schinder’s liner notes, Souther recalls engineer Jim Malloy (father of Home by Dawn‘s producer David Malloy) suggesting that the album had the misfortune of arriving too early for the pop-country renaissance. Malloy was proven right when the touching “I’ll Take Care of You” reached hit status on The Dixie Chicks’ 1998 album Wide Open Spaces, but it’s hard to beat Souther’s spare, beautifully understated original with just his voice and piano, and Billy Walker’s guitar. “Don’t Know What I’m Gonna Do” is an honest look at the heartbreak of a man haunted by an ex-lover; the closing track, “All I Want,” marries a lyric of elegant, romantic simplicity to a lovely melody rendered primarily by Souther and a keyboard.
Omnivore’s reissue appends the Souther/Ronstadt duet “Hearts Against the Wind” from the Urban Cowboy soundtrack as well as three previously unreleased treats: an excellent, release-quality demo of “I’ll Take Care of You” featuring Waddy Wachtel on guitar, and two album outtakes. One is a wonderful country take on the Rodgers and Hart standard “Little Girl Blue,” and the bluesy “Girls All Over the World” penned by Souther, Glenn Frey and Jack Tempchin.
Both Black Rose and Home by Dawn are attractively housed in digipaks designed by Greg Allen, with booklets of liner notes, lyrics, photographs and memorabilia. Michael Graves has crisply remastered both titles. In recent years, JD Souther has returned to recording with a series of sophisticated pop-jazz albums. His small but vital discography, from John David Souther to his latest, 2015’s Tenderness, makes a valuable addition to any music shelf.
Both Black Rose and Home by Dawn are available now:
Black Rose: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Home by Dawn: (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
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Great reviews of long-overdue albums!