Didn’t It Rain

Artist: Laurie, Hugh
Label: Warner Bros. Records
Released: 2013
Running time: 71:05
Rating: 3.6/5

It’s sad, but plenty of people link the rugged features of the superb comedian, author and deep connoisseur of blues nectar, Mr. Hugh Laurie, only with one character, and they always will: the well-monetized, overwrought cynic in a white coat, Dr. House, the main magnet of the otherwise rather obscurely overhyped series House (known in Slovenia as Zdravnikova vest). Many just forget about his literary outpourings and the more than readable book The Gun Seller (published in Slovenian as Pokapuška), and only a few remember the brilliant duets with Stephen Fry and the added color he brought to the cast of the legendary Blackadder. As for me, I can’t exactly brag that even a year ago I knew much about his musical taste, his discographic gems, or the level of outstanding quality in his playing, all of which he thoroughly proved and confirmed with a trip on a time machine that, after landing in New Orleans, was fittingly named Let Them Talk. And talk we did! About the refined layers of juicy music, about how the classic treasure chest is completely unknown to many self-styled »connoisseurs« of music, and about our hope that Laurie, now that he’s shed the white coat of the neurotic addict House, will devote himself to music, because he’s got more than enough know-how for it. The 54-year-old Brit is a trained musician: he started playing piano at six, and besides that instrument he handles guitar, drums, harmonica and saxophone, and he sings. Above all, he knows the right people, the ones who have done something worth mentioning and know how to serve their instruments, so the primal beat of the blues, that juicy music, can roar, while the hearts and ears of the delighted just melt.

Let’s set aside, for a short while, the paeans to the excellent NOLA classics and turn to the latest offering – the album Didn’t It Rain. This is definitely a sonic detour: Laurie packed his bags with his whole crew and headed north along the great rivers to the very heart of America, remembering some of the giants of the Americana sound – not the neon-glitzy kind, of course, but the kind that happened in the smoky, smoke-stained, heart-filled dives of the American back of beyond. Laurie admits that even as a child that something different and tantalizing enchanted him, and this time he shows off his knowledge of some of the genre’s pioneers, like W.C. Handy (you meet him with the opener St. Louis Blues) and Jelly Roll Morton (only through some after-the-fact homework do I find out that without him I Hate A Man Like You wouldn’t sound as sinister as it does …), while also bowing to a few less rustic names. For instance, Alan Price of the Animals with the song Changes, Dr. John with Wild Honey, and after Unchain My Heart, while you’re thinking of Joe Cocker, you almost forget that the first to sing it was the great Ray Charles. And Lurie gives you plenty of reasons to fall in love in one go. In Ocean Way Studio on the outskirts of Hollywood, a Hugh hungry for playing and music lured in producer Joe Henry, the excellent masters from his backing outfit Cooper Bottom Band, and on top of that, the soundproofed room found space for guests too.  For example, Guatemalan singer Gaby Moreno, soul singer Jean McClain (who, I find out after the fact, has worked with both Sheryl Crow and Jimmy Cliff), and the top-notch, Grammy-winning musician Taj Mahal, who laced the song Vicksburg Blues, the brainchild of the great Little Brother Montgomery, with blues. Those who can, can, and after the blues it’s now time for a pinch of jazz, R&B sweetness, soul and even tango! The guiding principle of the playful Hugh is that he simply plays with whoever he feels like playing with, and of course the music remains first and foremost what pleases his rather refined and selective ears …

What’s surprising is that Hugh is now more of a name that would-be blues enthusiasts latch onto, folks who know only the reach of their three TV channels, where they fell in love with House, and nothing else matters. If on Let Them Talk Laurie actively sang on every track, this time he’s more often in a supporting role: besides guitar he scrubs out his share of chords on piano, and his solo vocals ring out on only half of the thirteen tracks, and less than half at that. Copper Bottom Band has a new member next to it, who, given the glitz and weight of his name, somehow remains set apart from the whole, bathed in his perfectly usual star glow. The opening St. Louis Blues takes the blues train north in a recognizable way, though it doesn’t immediately top the celebrated debut. The duet of Laurie’s raspy voice and the black-soul tinge of Gaby Moreno’s feminine vocal cords feels calm, restrained and reserved for opening the registers later on.  The follow-up, the hit-worthy little number Junkers Blues, already adds a bit more humorous bite, and to the gentle tapping of drums, guitar and piano, with both of the aforementioned vocals, a saxophone and a soft layer of Hammonds tastefully join in, which makes the song worth more than one deep-dive listen, and you can easily picture a smoky dive in some out-of-the-way American suburb.

Right after that comes time for something more Latin-American – the song Kiss Of Fire. At first glance tango has little in common with the blues, but the vocal tango duet between the temperamental Guatemalan soul singer Gabi Moreno, singing in Spanish, and the adventurously minded Hugh works, let’s call it purposefully schizophrenic, and instead of fiery sexual explicitness it goes for something calmer, and under the quiet Anglo-Spanish interweaving there’s enough glowing ember to get your feet tapping. Didn’t It Rain is a less directly provocative record, and the blues is served up less prominently this time or, if I may use a metaphor, Laurie and company have pulled a good deal of cotton wool over the whole thing, which suits the average white taste, with less of the black raspiness.  The hands of the time machine have stopped at 1930, and the approach is interesting – Spanish, then English, then both at once, simultaneously, and despite the chaos of both vocabularies the thing somehow gets through and the whole starts to spin threads of pleasure. For all that, you can feel just a pinch too much compromise throughout, but Vicksburg Blues, with Taj Mahal’s raspy blues vocal, pours in enough mojo that criticism simply can’t and mustn’t land right away. Taj drives his train, his steamboat, in good spirits and to the delight of all the blues purists. And this time the train often stops in the bohemian quarters too. The Weed Smoker’s Dream, after Junkers Blues and doses of horse and cocaine, serves up a little greenery as well, with the old-timey touch of the super-sweet interpretations of the previously heard Gabi Moreno. A sexy dame, at least as far as the vocals go, who gives the record that sweeter touch, and overall there’s enough playing around that you can listen to the record dutifully from start to finish, and that’s no doubt because House doesn’t demand all the spotlights for himself, if I’m being blunt. Besides the exceptional Gabi, Jean McClain also tries to prove herself with her take on Elle Fitzgerald, but on the little numbers I Hate A Man Like You and Send Me To The ‘Lectric Chair too much effort killed the full potential for an even higher level of quality, and the aforementioned Guatemalan is far more convincing than the weaker Jean.

So the record has enough good moments (say, the song Evenin’, the wistful Changes, or the album’s bonus track Unchain My Heart) as well as weak cards (the title track Didn’t It Rain, Careless Love, the daft One For My Baby, and a few more you could dig up). The thing breathes with living, by no means perfect lungs, though it’s true that, thanks to the character and presence of the charismatic Laurie, plenty of people will reach for the blues treasure chest and, who knows, maybe out of sheer curiosity dig into the rustic gems of the past that remain unknown to so many. Laurie is a living music encyclopedia on two legs, with the right connections and acquaintances, and above all with the right reasons he took on this mission, on which some will try to smear him and humiliate him with comparisons to certain pioneers who, as Laurie himself admits, are in a completely different league. Laurie is living out his dreams and longings, and this time he’s selflessly putting his dream world of a more perfect world into action, one where quarrels and slander and depressive recession-era self-pity are countered with something beautiful and worth cherishing – quality music. For that alone, even if it’s just for the laudable (and still very high-quality!) attempt, Hugh deserves all the praise and a standing ovation, while all those embittered, impotent know-it-alls who only dream of strumming a guitar or tickling the piano keys, and instead of doing anything about it prefer to gather tons of spit in their mouths and stones in their pockets for pharisaic stoning, and who judge music they haven’t even listened to, never mind actually heard, solely by the name of the project’s lead, writing pus-filled, abscessed, demeaning litanies on forum pages and feeding their egos. It’s a matter of personal stance and a matter of taste. I personally think that Hugh’s second record is more of an attempt at teaching literacy to the musically unschooled, and you know yourselves that you can’t read textbooks as the literary gems of the century. Didn’t It Rain didn’t top Let Them Talk, but I’m convinced that, going by the continuity laid out so far, this is a project whose absolute peak is still waiting. It’ll be worth the wait, and Hugh and company deserve credit for a solid piece of work and a chance for you to listen to the music without star-allergic glasses on your eyes.

Lineup

Hugh Laurie – vocals, piano, Wurlitzer, guitar

Jay Bellerose – drums and percussion

Kevin Breit – acoustic, electric and lap steel guitar, mandolin, mandola and mandocello, banjo, backing vocals

Vincent Henry – soprano, tenor and baritone saxophone, clarinet and bass clarinet, harmonica and backing vocals

Greg Leisz – mandolin, mandola, lap steel, Dobro, Weissenborn, acoustic and electric guitar

Jean McClain – vocals and backing vocals

Robby Marshall – alto and tenor saxophone, clarinet and bass clarinet

David Piltch – bass and double bass

Patrick Warren – accordion, Hammond B3, church organ, keyboards

Guest musicians:

Elizabeth Lea – trombone

Larry Goldings – Hammond B3

Taj Mahal – vocals on Vicksburg Blues

Gaby Moreno – vocals on Kiss Of Fire, The Weed Smoker’s Dream, Didn’t It Rain, backing vocals

Production

Joe Henry

Tracklist

1. St. Louis Blues
2. Junkers Blues
3. Kiss Of Fire
4. Vickburg Blues
5. The Weed Smoker’s Dream
6. Wild Honey
7. Send Me To ‘Lectric Chair
8. Evenin’
9. Didn’t It Rain
10. Careless Love
11. One For My Baby
12. I Hate A Man Like You
13. Changes
14. Unchain My Heart
15. Yeh Yeh (Live)