Warren Zevon Wind CD

THE WIND won the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. "Keep Me in Your Heart" was nominated for Song Of The Year and for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. "Disorder in the House" won for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal and was also nominated for Best Rock Song.

With the specter of a terminal lung cancer diagnosis hanging over his head, Warren Zevon responded by rallying to make THE WIND, an album that found him working with longtime collaborator and friend Jorge Calderon, shortly after getting the news. The result is a tight group of 11 songs wrapped up in a year, despite a diagnosis that only gave Zevon three months to live. Along the way, plenty of famous names--both friends and fans--pitched in, including Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Emmylou Harris, Jackson Browne, Dwight Yoakam and Don Henley. Allusions to his situation are naturally sprinkled throughout, whether it's partying in the face of doom ("The Rest of the Night"), using a self-penned blues song to look back with no regrets ("Rub Me Raw"), or pledging his eternal love ("El Amor De Mi Vida"). Even Zevon's cover of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," avoids the pitfall of sentimentality as he can be heard bellowing "open up, open up" in the background of the song's chorus sung by Tommy Shaw, John Waite, and Billy Bob Thornton. "Keep Me in Your Heart" finds Zevon subtly asking just that, in a dignified manner guaranteed to mist up the eyes of even the most jaded person.

Live Recording

Personnel: Warren Zevon (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, piano, keyboards); Jorge Calderon (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, tres, bass, maracas); Bruce Springsteen, Brad Davis (electric guitar, background vocals); Mike Campbell (electric guitar); Ry Cooder (guitar, slide guitar); Tommy Shaw (12-string guitar, background vocals); Randy Mitchell (slide guitar, background vocals); Joe Walsh (slide guitar); David Lindley (lap steel guitar, saz, background vocals); Gil Bernal (saxophone); James Raymond (piano); Reggie Hamilton (upright bass); Luis Conte (drums, bongos, congas, maracas, percussion); Don Henley, Jim Keltner, Steve Gorman (drums); Dwight Yoakam, Billy Bob Thornton, Emmylou Harris, Tom Petty (background vocals).

Producers: Warren Zevon, Jorge Calderon, Noah Scot Snyder.

Rolling Stone (12/25/03, p.111) - Included in Rolling Stone's "50 Best Albums of 2003"
Rolling Stone (9/18/03, p.71) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...In somebody else's defiance of death, we in the audience get an intense affirmation of life....Zevon's a lucky man in the sense that brilliant songwriters are granted a form of immortality denied everyone else..."
Spin (10/03, p.113) - "...Zevon has been finding the lyricism in grim resignation for 30 years..." - Grade: A-
Entertainment Weekly (12/26/03, p.145) - "Keep Me in Your Heart" ranked #15 in Entertainment Weekly's 2003 "Records of the Year"
Entertainment Weekly (9/5/03, p.75) - "...Unsentimental [and] happily unhygienic, sounding as ramshackle and energized as you'd hope a nothing-left-to-lose last blast would..." - Rating: A-
Q (12/03, p.140) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...THE WIND is poignant beyond words....It's been a privilege to listen to him..."
Uncut (p.120) - "Zevon's songwriting rose in unexpected ways to his most exacting of challenges....Zevon exhibited a little-used ability to turn his focus inwards..."
Uncut (01/04, pp.84-7) - Ranked #1 in Uncut's "Albums Of The Year 2003"
Uncut (9/03, p.96) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...Zevon has done, if not the impossible, then the unlikely. Under the direst circumstances, he has painted his masterpiece..."
Mojo (Publisher) (11/03, p.122) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...There's a real sense of party-beneath-the-scaffold much of the time....Still powerful though; there are several energetic rockers..."