Birthdays | J.J. Cale

Remembering the great J. J. Cale (December 5, 1938 – July 26, 2013)

After Midnight

Bringing It Back ( To Tulsa and Back - On Tour )

Crazy Mama

“I’m more of an engineer than a singer-songwriter or guitar player,” Cale says dryly. A studio journeyman in L.A. in the Sixties, Cale didn’t release his first album, Naturally, until 1971, two years after Clapton recorded “After Midnight.” And Cale created much of the back-porch flavor on his early records – dusty, compressed guitars and his ethereal growl – with studio effects and primitive drum machines. “That’s what Eric was hearing then,” Cale cracks, “me using recording machinery to cover up my lack of talent.”

Clapton and Cale didn’t meet until 1976 – Cale was headlining a show in London, and Clapton was one of his sidemen for the evening. “He’s very charismatic – warm and self-effacing,” Clapton says of his hero. “I asked him not long ago, ‘What do you do with your time?’ He said, ‘I buy guitars and play them.’ He leads a simple life. He does a lot of work”.