Robben Ford - where to start?

Zoolooter

I’ve never really listen that much to him apart from the odd YouTube clip. Inspired by a recent post on here I’d like to explore his playing a bit more. Anyone recommend his best 2 or 3 albums? Cheers.

PCG

Blue Moon is probably my favourite.  It may just be because it was the first album of his I listened to but it’s still the one I go back to most.  I like Tiger Walk too (instrumental). 

 I guess Talk to your Daughter is his most famous but it’s never really grabbed me to be honest.

west

Heres a nice tune from the first yellow jackets album when he was playing with a little more fire ....

Philly_Q

PCG said:

Blue Moon is probably my favourite.  It may just be because it was the first album of his I listened to but it’s still the one I go back to most.  I like Tiger Walk too (instrumental). 

 I guess Talk to your Daughter is his most famous but it’s never really grabbed me to be honest.

In a similar way I would go back to the late '80s, early '90s because they're the ones I heard first.  I do like Talk to Your Daughter, and I also like the couple of albums with The Blue Line which I assume are a little more rocky than more recent stuff - although I haven't heard the more recent stuff so that may be nonsense!

I remember seeing his first couple of albums in record shops way back at the end of the '70s, and Schizophonic gave me the impression he was as much a saxophonist as a guitarist.  Then about ten years later he became much better known and there was no mention of saxophones...!

mudslide73

I thoroughly recommend 2007's Truth - some lovely soulful stuff.

axisus

I have a bunch of albums, I love some of his stuff and I just can't listen to other stuff. Very up and down for me. My fave album is Truth, I adore the first track (lateral climb) which has a superb solo (wish I could play it).

I stopped buying albums in the end, they were too hit and miss for me (have 6 or 7)

EricTheWeary

Off the back of this I’ll go listen to some Robben as I haven’t done for ages. He doesn’t seem to mind some quite cheesy songs so he can be hard work but Truth is the one that I’m humming songs from in my head whilst answering this. 

And he’s so Robben, so perfect at what he does that I find him a bit tiring in a way. Like eating some lovely cakes and after a while jonesing for a piece of lettuce. 

Philly_Q

EricTheWeary said:

Off the back of this I’ll go listen to some Robben as I haven’t done for ages. He doesn’t seem to mind some quite cheesy songs so he can be hard work but Truth is the one that I’m humming songs from in my head whilst answering this. 

And he’s so Robben, so perfect at what he does that I find him a bit tiring in a way. Like eating some lovely cakes and after a while jonesing for a piece of lettuce. 

Funny you say that, I was listening to Robben Ford at the same time as I was into Eric Johnson - Eric would take five years to record an album (which doesn't seem such a big deal now) during which time Robben would make three or four.

So weirdly, I came to think of Robben as a kind of rough-and-ready alternative to Eric Johnson...!  In retrospect of course, the Robben Ford albums are actually rather slick and a bit "easy listening" at times.

(I'm often surprised at the stuff I bought 30 years ago... I think of myself as only listening to teh Bro0talz...)

dindude

Love Robben, but there’s a lot of material out there. I’d start with A Handful of Blues. The opening track Rugged Road has possibly my favourite solo every recorded, it’s sublime. It so has some more delicate numbers such as a great version of Don’t Let Me Be Understood.

https://youtu.be/A-X9dU28qyA

beed84

Talk to your Daughter is a must. Handful of Blues, Mystic Mile and Keep on Running are excellent too, whereas Supernatural focuses more on songwriting that guitar work – one of my personal faves.

ArchtopDave

The Album that I go back to time and again is The Authorised Bootleg. Also, as already mentioned Blue Moon, Talk to Your Daughter, and Tiger Walk. Personally I'd largely avoid the more recent Albums. They do have some good tracks on them, but a significant number aren't that brilliant, which is curious -  as I mentioned in the other Robben Ford Thread the fact that he now considers himself to primarily be a song writer these days.

equalsql

beed84 said:

Talk to your Daughter is a must. Handful of Blues, Mystic Mile and Keep on Running are excellent too, whereas Supernatural focuses more on songwriting that guitar work – one of my personal faves.

This .. Talk To Your Daughter was his first solo outing and was a benchmark for blues/jazz players at the time. His tone and playing on that album is just jaw-dropping.

Here's an utter classic from it..

octatonic

Truth is excellent and the best place to start.

I also don't really rate Talk To Your Daughter.

Kebabkid

Great player with superb phrasing, feel, musical and chordal knowledge.

The Talk to Your Daughter album features his 'modern' tone on tracks like 'Talk to your daughter' and 'Help the poor' and is good one to listen to as a contrast to his subsequent material, which has a roarer sound . The 2 songs I've mentioned are benchmark sounds for me and how 'I' thought a Dumble sounded, but as we now know different players, they're different sounding. To that point, A Handful of Blues is a good representation of his rootsier, bluesier playing and sound and worth a listen.

Whilst his Tele features a lot, on some albums he'll stick with one different guitar like a Casino and that influenced the material.

An album I love is 'Pop Pop' by Rikki Lee Jones where she covers jazz standards and he plays wonderful accompaniment on acoustic guitar.

One thing of note...Robben Ford is not as strong in the singing department but as a guitarist, he's up there with his mate, Larry Carlton and you may hear the term 'outside playing' applied to their respective styles because of the twist they put into their scale and note choices

One thing, I wish he'd played on a Steely Dan record

uksaint7

Surprised nobody has mentioned Jing Chi (with Jimmy Haslip & Vinnie Colaiuta) and Renegade Creation (with Michael Landau, Jimmy Haslip and Gary Novak). Both are fantastic bands.

Ossyrocks

uksaint7 said:

Surprised nobody has mentioned Jing Chi (with Jimmy Haslip & Vinnie Colaiuta) and Renegade Creation (with Michael Landau, Jimmy Haslip and Gary Novak). Both are fantastic bands.

I have all the Jing Chi stuff too. It maybe a bit "hardcore Robben fans only" as a starting point into his playing though.

Vinnie on drums is masterful though.

guitars4you

ArchtopDave said:

The Album that I go back to time and again is The Authorised Bootleg. Also, as already mentioned Blue Moon, Talk to Your Daughter, and Tiger Walk. Personally I'd largely avoid the more recent Albums. They do have some good tracks on them, but a significant number aren't that brilliant, which is curious -  as I mentioned in the other Robben Ford Thread the fact that he now considers himself to primarily be a song writer these days.

I'm a big RF fan - Have purchased most albums and I dare say I got into him around the days of the Blue Line combo - I was playing some of the later albums, from the last 10 years or so, but getting a little bit 'bored' of what I was listening to - Maybe bored was the wrong word but certainly no longer inspired by such latter albums - Wasn't sure if it was just me and listening to endless hours of guitar playing and/or missing a good pop tune/song, with an occasional solo or not - By chance I went back to the Blue Line combo and Truth - This is what originally got me into RF - Low and behold it totally reminded me why I like RF and I love this stuff 

Many will disagree - But I wonder, with any artists, that can you keep turning out umpteen albums and stay fresh/inspired, or after a while does it sound like another version of what you've heard 

Philly_Q

This inspired me to listen to a couple of Robben Ford/Blue Line albums yesterday, for the first time in years.  Some great stuff, but after two albums I did feel the need to hear something a bit grittier.

stratman3142

I think I'd go with Handful of Blues first.

Later on, in addition to his own albums, it's worth checking out Renegade Creation which is Robben Ford Mike Landau Jimmy Haslip and Gary Novak. Also, I love Jung Chi with Vinnie Colaiuta and Jimmy Haslip - but it's probably not the best place to start.

DefaultM

west said:

Heres a nice tune from the first yellow jackets album when he was playing with a little more fire ....

I bet they were annoyed that WASP was already taken.

Zoolooter

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone, I’ll give them a try at the weekend hopefully finding some gems.