Review Guidelines

Songs - Jack Tempchin Album Review

Jack Tempchin

Image: link

Album Review

Jack Tempchin is an American musician and songwriter. Perhaps his best known song is The Eagles' hit 'Peaceful Easy Feeling'; he also co-wrote their hit 'Already Gone'. His songs have featured on many movie soundtracks, 'Homer and Eddy', 'Sgt. Bilko', 'Thelma and Louise' and 'The Big Lebowski' among them.

Right from the opening bars of track 1 'Out in the Desert' it is easy to see why the paths of Jack and The Eagles have crossed so many times. Close your eyes when listening to this and you can feel the sandy breezes and sense the tumbleweed rolling past you. Tempchin's vocals are gravelly and world-weary with a 'what goes on in the desert stays in the desert' feel.

Track 2 'Something in the Image' reminds me of 'Wicked Game' by Chris Isaak-a langruous guitar hook, probably played on one of those very beautiful and highly polished Resonator guitars. Lyrics feature the word 'pixel' quite often-this makes it feel as though Jack wants to sound a bit more hip than he truly is. Following on from this, 'Waiting' starts off with a drum feature similar to that at the start of 'Rock n Roll' by Led Zeppelin. The similarity ends there though, with this track sounding more like an REM album track. However, in its favour, the lyrics do resist the waiting/anticipating rhyming couplet which is commendable. The hip factor is back here though with email, fax and telephone getting a mention. It does feel a little bit like he's saying to his kids "look, I know what this internet thing is and I use it as well, thank you very much. I'll put it in a song if you don't believe me".

'It Could Have Been You and Me' is next up. It is a jazzy number, evocative of lazing about in the shade of a large tree whilst drinking home-made lemonade, possibly in a Fanny Flagg movie. Except that there is a French bird speaking over the track. She has your telephone number and the address of your hotel and is coming to Paris to find you, Mon Amour... A good song which is spoilt a little by the French talky bit. But I always find talky bits in songs sound cringe-worthy, even in a foreign language, so perhaps I'm misjudging Jacques here.

Dancing In The Moonlight is a Latin-inspired track, not the Toploader grand oeuvre. Jack does a bit of Spanish vocals in this one, but not quite as well as my buddy Carlos Santana. Good effort though. Next track sees JT back in Johnny Cash mode. 'Box of Memories' is a stripped down production mainly consisting of guitar and a beautiful viola in the backgroud. Telling tales of lost loved ones, there are some very subtle backing vocals. A sensitive track which contrasts a LOT with what follows it.

'Smuggler's Blues' starts off with a T Rex-esque guitar and has gritty hard-hitting lyrics. This song was used as the theme tune for Miami Vice, albeit with Glen Frey (of Jack's pals The Eagles) in the lead. Excepting a very gentle love song between them, the last couple of tracks remind me of that bit in The Blues Brothers where they ask what type of music is normally played in a bar and receive the response "Oh, we got both kinds: we got country AND western!" and they then proceed to play the theme from Rawhide repeatedly. It seems a suitable way to bring the album full circle.

It's easy to see why Tempchin has songs featured on so many movie soundtracks; his songs really do feel like a nice warm day by the river somewhere in Alabama, watching the lazy water slowly drift by, a warm fuzzy kind of feeling. In the press handout with this album, Tempchin likens it to more of a short story collection than a novel and this is true-so many differing styles can be heard on the album and Tempchin carries them all off, the sign of a good songwriter.

Caroline McCarthy