Various artists - We AreOnly Riders: Jeffrey LeePierce tribute

Wed 26th May, 2010 in Music Reviews

We Are Only Riders is a tribute record dedicated to The Gun Club’s Jeffrey Lee Pierce and a labour of love by Pierce’s long-time friends, collaborators and fans to keep his music alive.

The roll call is an impressive one. Nick Cave, Deborah Harry, Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, Queens Of The Stone Age), Isobel Campbell (Belle & Sebastian), Mick Harvey (The Bad Seeds) and others, join Pierce’s friend and the project’s initiator, Cypress Grove.

A lesson learned by Grove is that a closet dive can produce wonderful things like discovering forgotten tapes (perhaps a mixtape or two for an old lover, or in this instance a document of a delightful work in progress). A long time ago, Grove and Pierce started writing a country record that morphed into a blues album and all that was left from these sessions were recordings only just captured on a cheap boombox.

At the time the pair thought they would change the world with their musical demos. Little did they know that in 2007 Grove and company would be working through these song sketches and looking to turf out some other unreleased, happy accidents performed on only a few occasions. To say it took bucket loads of persistence and dedication would be selling things short.

The result, We Are Only Riders is not a strict covers record because only the most diehard fans would be familiar with a small fraction of the songs. So the floodgates were wide open to interpretation allowing the artists free reign to add their own individual stamps to the tracks. Like much of Pierce’s work however, the music predominantly fits the swamp rock crossed with folk-country genre.

Nick Cave leads the charge in travelin’ hobo mode, Ramblin’ Mind, his dusky voice sounding like it has seen its fair share of “experience”. Sounding very much like a tense and moody Johnny Cash, this one sees Cave in fine form and in the first of many roles he would adopt during the course of this project including piano man to Deborah Harry in Lucky Jim; all-round artist; and duet singer.

Cave’s rendition is the first of three versions of the song, which could leave listeners thinking that the result is musical overkill. The fact that other tracks like Constant Waiting and Free To Walk are similarly repackaged three times may mean some people will find it hard to justify the admission price for a musical Groundhog day experience. That said Cave’s opener is definitely the pick of this musical litter.

Mark Lanegan offers a similar vocal treatment to Cave in Constant Waiting, sounding like a combination of gravel, whiskey and smoke that only comes with the right amount of musical territory and a life hardened by the road. When Lanegan teams up with Isobel Campbell in Free To Walk the pair seem to share a similar vibe to Neil and Pegi Young covering Four Strong Winds.

The duet of the same song featuring Cave and Harry brings to mind a stroll though a lush English countryside a stone’s throw away from where those wild roses grow. It’s a pity then that Lydia Lunch’s My Cadillac seems to have the opposite effect. Her voice is rather difficult on the ear – like a Bob Dylan meets Julia Stone – meaning it certainly won’t be to everyone’s taste.

We Are Only Riders captures the spirit of Pierce’s original, emotionally heavy songs. It provides an excellent celebration and standing ovation to a man considered an all-time great Blues singer. The candle is left to continue burning brightly with the right amount of energy and panache to inspire a new generation of artists. We Are Only Riders should encourage people to trek through life’s long road free of spirit and clear of mind.