The Gun ClubWe Are Only Riders - The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project
It's a sad fact that Jeffrey Lee Pierce and his band (The Gun Club) seems to have been largely forgotten. As an ever-present in the burgeoning punk scene of the late 70s (writing for fanzines, performing in bands and presiding over Blondie's Fan Club), he found his own niche as head of the aforementioned Gun Club - an incredibly influential LA band who seem to be rarely regarded nowadays - followed by a series of solo albums after he became disillusioned with punk's increasing uniformity and discovered the joys of Delta Blues. Jeffrey died in 1996 after a long and tortured battle with his demons, leaving a tremendous legacy of music.
Fast-forward to early 2006, and blues performer (and Pierce collaborator) Cypress Grove clears out his attic. He discovers a bag of cassette tapes and rather than just throw them out, he decides to inspect the contents - and discovers a battered old tape labelled "JLP Songs", containing songs that he was working with Jeffrey before his death, and that had never been recorded anywhere else other than this battered cassette that had been in an attic for almost 10 years. The quality was too bad to release, but the idea was born to re-record these with the people who Jeffrey had worked with, befriended and touched in his lifetime.
And it's a startling lineup. Nick Cave (plus various Bad Seeds), Brian Wilson, Lydia Lunch, Mark Lanegan, Isobel Campbell, Debbie Harry and Chris Stein are among the people who gave their time to work on this relatively low-key release, with Henry Rollins, Wim Wenders and Jeffery's sister Jacqui among several heartbreakingly-moving tributes in the accompanying booklet.
The music itself is an absolute joy, with the various artists tackling the 10 songs on offer, and although several songs are repeated more than once, each treatment is given its own unique rendition - the album's possible standout track Free to Walk is performed three times, and it's impossible to separate Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan's version from Nick Cave and Debbie Harry's duet in terms of quality, such is the conviction of the delivery. But for all the sorrow that caused this album to be made in the first place, it's a wonderfully warm affair thanks to some beautiful songs. And it's fitting that at least a couple of Jeffrey's performances have been rescued from the original tape, with his guitar playing turning up on a handful of songs.
It's a great contemporary album, and fans of any/all of the artists involved should snap this album up. And in doing so, hopefully discover a great and sadly-missed talent that deserves as wide an audience as his influence deserves. Weird though that the track listing on the back cover of the CD isn't in the correct order, hopefully this will be rectified on subsequent pressings.
It's a sad fact that Jeffrey Lee Pierce and his band (The Gun Club) seems to have been largely forgotten. As an ever-present in the burgeoning punk scene of the late 70s (writing for fanzines, performing in bands and presiding over Blondie's Fan Club), he found his own niche as head of the aforementioned Gun Club - an incredibly influential LA band who seem to be rarely regarded nowadays - followed by a series of solo albums after he became disillusioned with punk's increasing uniformity and discovered the joys of Delta Blues. Jeffrey died in 1996 after a long and tortured battle with his demons, leaving a tremendous legacy of music.
Fast-forward to early 2006, and blues performer (and Pierce collaborator) Cypress Grove clears out his attic. He discovers a bag of cassette tapes and rather than just throw them out, he decides to inspect the contents - and discovers a battered old tape labelled "JLP Songs", containing songs that he was working with Jeffrey before his death, and that had never been recorded anywhere else other than this battered cassette that had been in an attic for almost 10 years. The quality was too bad to release, but the idea was born to re-record these with the people who Jeffrey had worked with, befriended and touched in his lifetime.
And it's a startling lineup. Nick Cave (plus various Bad Seeds), Brian Wilson, Lydia Lunch, Mark Lanegan, Isobel Campbell, Debbie Harry and Chris Stein are among the people who gave their time to work on this relatively low-key release, with Henry Rollins, Wim Wenders and Jeffery's sister Jacqui among several heartbreakingly-moving tributes in the accompanying booklet.
The music itself is an absolute joy, with the various artists tackling the 10 songs on offer, and although several songs are repeated more than once, each treatment is given its own unique rendition - the album's possible standout track Free to Walk is performed three times, and it's impossible to separate Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan's version from Nick Cave and Debbie Harry's duet in terms of quality, such is the conviction of the delivery. But for all the sorrow that caused this album to be made in the first place, it's a wonderfully warm affair thanks to some beautiful songs. And it's fitting that at least a couple of Jeffrey's performances have been rescued from the original tape, with his guitar playing turning up on a handful of songs.
It's a great contemporary album, and fans of any/all of the artists involved should snap this album up. And in doing so, hopefully discover a great and sadly-missed talent that deserves as wide an audience as his influence deserves. Weird though that the track listing on the back cover of the CD isn't in the correct order, hopefully this will be rectified on subsequent pressings.
