Artist: Jeb Loy Nichols
Album: Long Time Traveller
Bitrate: 198kbps avg
Quality: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.98.4 / -V0 / 44.100Khz
Label: On U-Sound
Genre: Rock
Size: 118.64 megs
PlayTime: 1h 19min 19sec total
Rip Date: 2016-02-26
Store Date: 2016-02-05
Track List: Disc #1/2
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01. To Be Rich (Should Be A Crime) 3:53
02. The Day You Came Over The Hill 3:41
03. Mother Your Son 4:30
04. I'm In Need Now 3:56
05. Lonely King Of The Country 4:00
06. Poor Man's Prayer 3:46
07. Mr. Nobody 3:38
08. 97 Miles 4:15
09. Moving Time 3:42
10. Everything Is Different 3:29
Track List: Disc #2/2
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01. Salt Of A Fallen Tear 3:17
02. Miss Moon 3:32
03. Sweet Tough And Terrible 3:07
04. This Dark Road 3:36
05. 97 Miles (Alternate Mix) 3:46
06. The Day You Came Over The Hill 3:41
(Alternate Mix)
07. Lonely King Of The Country 3:57
(Alternate Mix)
08. I'm In Need Now (Alternate Mix) 4:02
09. Everything Is Different 3:16
(Alternate Mix)
10. Mother Your Son (Alternate Mix) 4:27
11. Poor Man's Prayer (Alternate 3:48
Mix)
Release Notes:
--------
Singer/songwriter Jeb Loy Nichols hasn't issued an album since he and Nostalgia
77's Ben Lamdin teamed up for The Jeb Loy Nichols Special in 2012. A few
limited-edition singles have popped up, but the artist has kept a low profile.
Long Time Traveller dates back to 2010, when it was issued in Japan as a very
limited release from On-U Sound and Beat Records. The songwriter has a
longstanding relationship with On-U Sound dating back to the earliest days of
the post-punk era, when he provided occasional backing vocals for its dubplates.
Nichols' love of reggae goes back to his days with the Fellow Travellers, who
fused Americana, country, and dub. As good as those recordings were, though,
they don't touch these. This date finds him in familiar company with members of
the Dub Syndicate, Roots Radics, and the Crispy Horns, as well as Skip McDonald
and Ghetto Priest. Producer and sonic alchemist Adrian Sherwood is at the
controls. Sherwood (who did a stellar remix of Nichols' lone hit "As the Rain")
effortlessly stitches the singer's soul-tinged Americana croon to steamy,
dreadwise dub riddims. He also thoroughly remixed and remastered the date for
this release. Opener "To Be Rich (Should Be a Crime)" weaves grooving, Jackie
Mittoo-esque organ and a Flabba Holt-inspired bubbling bassline, rolling
tom-toms, and snares as they roil under skanking guitars. Nichols (with backing
vocalists who croon equal parts Nyabinghi and gospel) indicts the wealthy. But
their case is made softly, almost sweetly -- the rhythm section underscores the
lyric weight and brings it home. "The Day You Came Over the Hill" uses irony and
metaphor to express love, loss, and heartbreaking vulnerability The
R&B-cum-Nashville vibe in "Lonely King of the Country" is highlighted by a
ranking bassline, elastic atmospheric space, and a hooky melody. "Mr. Nobody"
offers an unusually crystalline honky tonk piano. Nichols' vocal is tenderness
personified, supported by a Sherwood mix of rocksteady grooves played gently
enough to buoy the loneliness in the vocal, not steamroll over it. "97 Miles" is
great lover's rock, but in the melody the singer manages to graft his trademark
delivery even as he evokes both Gregory Isaacs (Roots Radics were his regular
backing band) and country-soul crooner Ronnie Milsap! Nichols can also be as
humid and dank as the dub musicians behind him: Check the dark, paranoid
strangeness in "Moving Time" where the Crispy Horns add the track's only
glimmers of light. On-U has added a second disc to this reissue. It contains
four previously unreleased songs. ("Miss Moon" is prime Nichols, while "This
Dark Road" is among the most straight-ahead "country" tracks he's ever cut.) In
addition are seven alternate mixes, and each is killer. Long Time Traveller is a
fine resurrected lost chapter. The songs are great, of course, but
uncharacteristically, they're equaled by the assembled musical corps. For fans
of Nichols, (and/or Sherwood and On-U Sound), this set is a must.