Chris Isaak Baja Sessions CD

Personnel: Chris Isaak (vocals, guitar); Rowland Salley (vocals, bass); Kenny Dale Johnson (vocals, drums); Hershel Yatovitz (guitar); Frank Martin, Jimmy Pugh, Mark Needham, Joni Haastrup.
All tracks have been digitally mastered using HDCD technology.
Personnel: Chris Isaak (vocals, guitar); Kenny Johnson, Kenney Dale Johnson (vocals, drums); Rowland Salley (vocals); Hershel Yatovitz (guitar).
Recording information: Coast Recorders, San Francisco, CA.
Photographers: Saori Miyazaki; Aaron Chang.
Unknown Contributor Roles: Frank Martin; Jimmy Pugh; Joni Haastrup; Lee Herschberg.
Isaak's well-known surfing fixation had been referenced here and there on past album art before, but Baja Sessions gives him a chance not only to bring that out in the open but to consciously aim for a much more relaxed, gentle follow-up to the harrowing Forever Blue. Returning to the calmer but still potent romantic angst and celebration familiar from his earlier records, Isaak and his core band, with new recruit Hershel Yatovitz on lead guitar, tackle a slew of cover songs, some re-recordings of older material and a few new songs as well. It's a much more relaxed outing in comparison to his previous work, by no means raw or rough, though -- Erik Jacobsen, Isaak's producer from start to end, or so it seems, keeps the focused, sweet sadness of Isaak's singing and music as pure as one could ever want it. The emphasis is on mostly acoustic performances with soft drumming from Johnson, usually with brushes. The calm, gentle flow of the band's work here means the new versions of older Isaak cuts like "Back On Your Side" and "Two Hearts" sound especially lovely, having a serene, relaxed sparkle to them. The cover choices are a fun range, everything from bona-fide rock & roll classics to nods to country and other sources. The old Gene Autry singing cowboy number "South of the Border (Down Mexico Way)" not only fits the theme of the album but seems tailor-made for Isaak's singing style, while Hawaiian standard "Sweet Leilani" gets the right touch of steel guitar twang to suit the song and then some. If there's a winner, though, it's the all-debts-paid cover of one of Isaak's obvious heroes -- Roy Orbison, whose majestic "Only the Lonely" gets a low-key but still appropriately dramatic revamp. ~ Ned Raggett
For all its lonesome balladry, BAJA SESSIONS sounds positively exultant after 1995's morose FOREVER BLUE. The title refers to the pastoral Mexican peninsula that gave Isaak the inspiration for this set of lush, glistening ballads. Lap steel guitars glide through songs whose sunny climate belies Isaak's sad-sack lyrical bent. Isaak plays down his neo-rockabilly side in favor of the romantic crooning that's made him an international hearthrob.
Rather than writing an entire album's worth of songs to fit this mood, Isaak picked several cover tunes as well as a couple selections from his own back catalog, and interpreted them in a manner concordant with the lazy, summer-vacation-feel of the recording. Isaak pays tribute to a primary influence on his version of Roy Orbison's "Only The Lonely," and brings his sad-surfer-boy feel to the Hawaiian-tinged pop chestnut "Sweet Leilani." On this vivid aural postcard from a place where sorrow sits as comfortably as happiness in the noonday sun, one can almost see Isaak's hastily scrawled message: "Having a miserable time, wish you were here."Q (11/96, p.126) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...his moody, blatantly '50s-derived magic works every time, never less so than on this informal set recorded while stranded in Mexico....timeless stuff..."