J J Cale - Naturally (1972) [FLAC] (Mercury 830 042-2) torrent

To commemorate the death of a genius, I've swiped a 100% perfect FLAC rip from WHAT, and offered it here to a wider audience. The notes that follow are the OP's:

J.J. Cale - Naturally (1972)
Audio CD - Mercury 830 042-2
U.S. Pressing
Original Recording Remastered
CD Release Date - 1987
Total Time - 32:12

Track Listing:

1. Call Me the Breeze (2:39)
2. Call the Doctor (2:28)
3. Don't Go to Strangers (2:25)
4. Woman I Love (2:39)
5. Magnolia (3:25)
6. Clyde (2:33)
7. Crazy Mama (2:25)
8. Nowhere to Run (2:27)
9. After Midnight (2:26)
10. River Runs Deep (2:42)
11. Bringing it Back (2:45)
12. Crying Eyes (3:13)

Tracks 1,2,7,10,12 recorded at Moss Rose Studio, Nashville.
Tracks 3,4,5,6,8,9,11 recorded at Bradley's Barn, Mt Juliet.

Personnel:

J. J. Cale - guitar, vocals
Karl Himmel - drums (4,5,6,7,8,10,12)
Chuck Browning - drums (3,9)
Tim Drummond - bass (4,5,6,8,11)
Carl Radle - bass (7,10,12)
Norbert Putnam - bass (3,9)
Bob Wilson - piano (4,5,6,8,11)
David Briggs - piano, organ (3,9)
Jerry Whitehurst - piano (3,9)
Weldon Myrick - steel guitar (1,2)
Buddy Spiker - fiddle (6)
Shorty Lavender - fiddle (6)
Walter Haynes - dobro (6)
Mac Gayden - slide guitar (7,10)
Ed Colis - harmonica (4,5,6,8,11)
Diane Davidson - backing vocals (7,10)

Review from All Music Guide:

J.J. Cale's debut album, Naturally, was recorded after Eric Clapton made "After Midnight" a huge success. Instead of following Slowhand's cue and constructing a slick blues-rock album, Cale recruited a number of his Oklahoma friends and made a laid-back country-rock record that firmly established his distinctive, relaxed style. Cale included a new version of "After Midnight" on the album, but the true meat of the record lay in songs like "Crazy Mama," which became a hit single, and "Call Me the Breeze," which Lynyrd Skynyrd later covered. On these songs and many others on Naturally, Cale effortlessly captured a lazy, rolling boogie that contradicted all the commercial styles of boogie, blues, and country-rock at the time. Where his contemporaries concentrated on solos, Cale worked the song and its rhythm, and the result was a pleasant, engaging album that was in no danger of raising anybody's temperature.

~ Thom Owens, All Music Guide

Ripped by MidnightRocker from factory-pressed silver CD Mercury 8300043-2.
Compressed with FLAC.
Converted to MP3 V0 from the flacs using foobar2000 with Lame 3.98. Tags written by Winamp.

Please note that several of sites have the wrong release date on this album. According to my CD, the J.J. Cale website and discogs.com, the release date is 1972. --M.R.

P.S. The highlight of this fine and somewhat overlooked album are the tracks featuring Nashville singer/songwriter Mac Gayden on slide guitar. The soulful Gayden played with Barefoot Jerry for a while before putting out a couple of fine albums in the mid-seventies. Gayden wrote the much-covered hit "Everlasting Love." Also here is J.J.'s version of the great "Magnolia," which was wonderfully redone by Poco the following year on Crazy Eyes. Then there are "Call Me the Breeze" and "After Midnight," so you cannot really go wrong with this album. --M.R.