Keith Richards – Blues Review

First Ballads, now Blues. Tonal adaptations where songs of old are pieced with contemporary material. There is merit to this form of release, a soft recontextualization of work overshadowed by the bust-up of The Rolling Stones. Keith Richards’ solo work is vastly superior to Mick Jagger because the latter pursued pop. Richards continued with a work he loved, a sound he had found comfort in and hopes to express his thanks for across three delicate, well-timed albums. A six-song compilation of efforts from his solo career is a neat piece. A refresher course of his trilogy of solo albums, remasters of Talk is Cheap and Main Offender, with a focus on the blues numbers heard through those works. There are plenty to choose from, though Richards has been brutal with his chopping and changing, opting for the six songs he believes best define the tone.  

He is right to choose opener My Babe, the initially unreleased song from the Talk is Cheap sessions is as obvious an opener as it gets. Beautiful piano work, the slight crackle of a remastered tape adds a modern layer to a song left in the vault for decades. Slowed numbers like Big Town Playboy, too, are fundamental understandings of blues in the right hands. Richards as this wildcard persona is played up well by the likes of I Could Have Stood You Up and the preceding song, another unreleased Talk is Cheap effort. Those debut solo efforts are marvellous and, if we are honest with ourselves, better than the main body of work which Richards released. He captures the magic of the blues as an emotional movement but adds that crisp, often blindingly strong instrumental work which will always define him first. His lyrics may be second, but they are marvellous and carry a heavy weight as all great words do. 

Those instrumentals, though, the thrill of the electric guitar and the emotionally rewarding piano work found underneath, is the best part of Blues. Keys to the Highway provides some slowed charms from Richards, those steadier instrumentals showing he is not all about the volatility and faster tempo. The Blues Jam which follows highlights a love for the genre, a complete understanding of all its peculiar intricacies. Richards is not repeating the past but evolving the genre, bringing a heavier focus on the electric guitar into play while maintaining the beautiful range those impressive piano solos offer. Richards expands on that blues focus with EP closer, Slim. A ten-minute powerhouse of a song where the liberation of playing merely to the time and tone is what matters.  

Improvisational whirlwinds like this are the lifeblood of modern blues. Few are doing it quite as Richards does, with a reliance on the tones of the past which formed his best works. A fine blur of respect and revolution can be heard on Blues, an EP collection not afraid to repurpose those old, unreleased materials as a shot of new life. Richards provides thrill after thrill here and gives material from his vault a new shot of life. Such is the steady thrill of blues material. It should be no surprise the instrumental excess heard on the EP’s closing track is so strong. Richards is a fine musician and finer still is his ear for overlapping instrumental spirit, which he captures throughout Blues.