Three friends, three musical soul mates, three distinctive talents, an award-winning studio disc and a recently unearthed live recording – One More Shot is an embarrassment of riches!
When Eric Andersen, one of folk’s preeminent singer-songwriters, Rick Danko, the Band bassist with the heartbreaking voice, and Jonas Fjeld, the renowned Norwegian performer and songwriter, played an impromptu gig in Woodstock, N.Y., in the fall of 1990, there was “magic in the air,” according to Andersen. Recognizing this unique synergy, the trio quickly played a 10-date Norwegian tour in February 1991, then headed into an Oslo studio to catch their collaboration on tape. The resultant, self-titled CD went on to win the prestigious Spellemans Pris (Norway’s version of the Grammy) in 1992. The following year, Danko/Fjeld/Andersen (issued by Ryko in the U.S.) was awarded the NAIRD (now AFIM) “Indie Award” as 1993’s Best Adult Contemporary Album.
Along with the prizes came high praise for the CD. Rolling Stone called the record “soul music of deep and lasting appeal,” England’s Folk Roots wrote that the trio “makes a timeless sound: real mountain music. Their voices blend like a Baptist choir or a New Orleans barroom band.” And Bob Dylan named the release “one of my favorite albums of all time.” As the late music critic Robert Palmer wrote in the CD’s liner notes (reprinted in One More Shot), the three singers, songwriters and frequent solo artists “forged their disparate backgrounds and experiences into a shared voice…[reaching] out to us with one voice, and a depth of feeling that seems to well up from one heart.” Rick Danko, a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as part of The Band and now deceased, summarized the combination: “It doesn’t matter where we come from geographically. We talk the same language.”
On Danko/Fjeld/Andersen, now reissued in remastered form as the first half of One More Shot, all three artists trade lead vocal and harmony duties and songwriting credits on twelve tracks that often showcase a mood of gentle reflection and melancholy, as befits their achingly expressive voices and deeply felt songs. One particular highlight, exemplifying the project’s generosity of spirit, is Rick Danko’s exquisitely mournful reading of Andersen’s classic “Blue River,” a song Andersen says was partially inspired by meeting The Band during 1970’s Festival Express train tour of Canada that featured the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and a riotous cast of other groups and musicians.
Only a few months after their first CD was recorded, Danko, Fjeld and Andersen performed a midnight set on a Norwegian fjord at the 1991 Molde International Jazz Festival. Captured on DAT through a single microphone before an audience of 1,600, each musician enjoyed a few songs in the solo spotlight before uniting with his two compatriots and a three-piece backing band. This recording, first released in Scandinavia last year and now available worldwide as the second disc of One More Shot, includes live versions of five of the songs from Danko/Fjeld/Andersen, as well as material from each musician’s past. The stripped-down nature of the performances and the intimacy of the recording confirm the individual and collective strength of the three international friends as writers, singers, and musicians.
Rick Danko opens the proceedings with three songs associated with The Band – Junior Parker’s spooky “Mystery Train” and wonderfully plaintive renditions of Robbie Robertson’s “It Makes No Difference” and “Twilight,” both of which Danko recorded with The Band. Jonas Fjeld applies his deep, rich voice to the shimmering “Blue Hotel” and ominous “The Bells are Ringing for You Now,” before Eric Andersen brings an acoustic Buddy Holly treatment to his own “Hey Babe, Have You Been Cheatin’,” followed by a somber reading of “Sheila.”
The rest of the show, performed by all three frontmen and their Norwegian backing musicians, mixes Danko/Fjeld/Andersen songs and older originals in a richly satisfying blend of music, spirit, soulfulness and sincerity. This is American roots music as interpreted by an American, a Canadian and a Norwegian, creating a moving and satisfying whole that is even greater than the sum of its illustrious parts.
Although Robert Palmer concluded his liner notes with the hope that “we can expect more of that essence rare,” the trio was to record only one more CD, 1994’s Ridin’ on the Blinds, before drifting apart. One More Shot is a historic addition to the trio’s slim discography, returning their debut to a new generation of listeners and treating longtime fans to a souvenir of three mighty talents on stage.
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The Street Was Always
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Waves |
Blue Rain |
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