Gone, Just Like A Train CD

Personnel: Bill Frisell (acoustic & electric guitars); Viktor Krauss (bass); Jim Keltner (drums, percussion).
Recorded at O'Henry Sound Studios, Burbank, California. Includes liner notes by Bill Frisell.
Drawing from all over the musical spectrum, Frisell selects drummer Jim Keltner (best known for his records with George Harrison, Eric Clapton and other rock stars) and bassist Viktor Krauss (a fixture in Lyle Lovett's country band), and comes up with an immensely likable, easy-grooving CD that defies one to put a label on it. If anything, Frisell leans toward a drawling country twang heavily indebted to Chet Atkins in his guitar work here, but there is a freewheeling jazz sensibility at work on every track. Keltner contributes the heavy rock element with his emphatic strokes, occasionally pushing Frisell in that direction on the title track and the lengthy "Lookout for Hope." Yet Keltner is also capable of surprising subtlety, and Krauss provides firm, unflashy underpinning. Above all, this is thoughtful, free-thinking, ear-friendly jamming that was recorded in bustling Burbank, CA. but sounds as if it was laid down in a relaxed cabin in the hills. ~ Richard S. Ginell
A chance to hear Bill Frisell showing another side of his Western influences and to hear drummer Jim Keltner and bassist Viktor Krauss show a looser, jazzier, more improvised side of their abilities. Music fans know that their favorite players have range and abilities that often go undisplayed, as musicians can frequently get pigeonholed into doing what first made them popular. This record is doubly gratifiying for that reason.
All these players are opening themselves up to each other and the listener in a unique way. Frisell plays lots of acoustic guitar here, and he's not exclusively using the language of the postmodern, effects-heavy jazz we love him for. We're seeing the pacing and form of his compositions in a less twisted sonic setting. Frisell also collaborated with artist Jim Woodring on the unique and evocative artwork for this CD, representing "things that are hidden, buried - things you can only see in dreams."

Award Winner

The Wire (3/98, p.55) - "...There is plenty of warmth to these curiously reticent trio performances....There's a lot of soft-slipper shuffling going on..."
Down Beat (4/98, p.48) - 4 1/2 stars (out of 5) - "...Frisell creates, and entices the listener into, a distinctive musical world, at once strange and familiar...
Option (3-4/98, p.88) - "...This is Frisell at his inventive, unbridled best, mixing styles and textures like a mad scientist and sounding like one of the best damn guitar players on the planet."