Chris Cain – Good Intentions Gone Bad
13 Tracks – 51 Minutes
Chris Cain was born in San Diego, California on November 19, 1955, to an African American father and a Greek mother who shared a huge record collection and love of music. Chris saw B.B. King the first time at age 3 and thanks to his parents saw almost every major act that passed through town afterwards including everyone from The Beatles to James Brown and Jimi Hendrix and blues greats Albert King and Johnny Winters among countless others.
His father bought him his first guitar at age 8. He relentlessly listened to the family record collection to play the songs he heard. He studied jazz at San Jose City College where he mastered keyboards and sax in addition to his guitar. He then taught jazz improvisation at that college. He got his first professional gig with a local San Jose singer and harmonica player, Gary Smith, in 1976. He formed his own touring band in 1986. His first album, Late Night City Blues, released in 1987 received four W.C. Handy Award (now Blues Music Awards) nominations. In 2020, his 15th album and the first on Alligator Records, Raisin’ Cain, received four Blues Music Award nominations including for Album of The Year and Best Guitarist.
For this album, his 16th, he went to Kid Andersen’s Greaseland Studio to record. Kid produced and played multi-instruments on several tracks, including bass on most songs. Chris, of course plays the guitar and provides lead vocals on every track, but also adds piano and the Wurlitzer on several tracks. Greg Rahn plays organ and piano for most of the tracks, with drummers June Core and Sky Garcia taking turns behind the drum set. On seven tracks, the horn section of Mike Rinta on trombone, Mike Peloquin on tenor sax, and Mike Galisatus on trumpet comes out swinging. Jon Otis also provides percussion on a few cuts.
Thirteen original songs, all written by Chris, rocks out on the first track as he sings “I just got a call from my own used-to-be, twenty years ago she used to work full time lying and cheating on me. Said she’s been thinking about me and thought I might like to know that her divorce was final on Monday and could she come by and say hello”. Of course this is “Too Little Too Late”, but certainly a great opening song that will get you moving. Next, he declares, “Fear Is My New Roommate” as he lets his guitar roar and states in a serious tone that he is “not sure what is going to happen to the world”. He then declares that everything he does for his baby with “Good Intentions” “always turn out bad”.
“Waiting For the Sun to Rise”, the first song without the horns is a slow crying ballad as he says “I used to think of my life as a trip down a one-way street. I was a fool, made mistakes along the way. They come back to haunt me when I think of yesterday and I pray for the morning to come”. Kid Andersen provides mellotron strings behind Eric’s guitar and piano work. Chris comes roaring back on “I Was Wrong” as he declares “You hardly talk to me.” “I can feel this is all over, we let this thing go on too long.” On “Time to Cry” he says, “I don’t have time for sit-down dinners, don’t have time for working out, don’t have time for a lot of hobbies, or free time to travel all about. No time to live my life, no time for goodbyes”, but man he sure does have the blues.
” Well, I quit staying out all night.” “Cut out eating fat foods, doing what my doctor suggests. Took a course on meditation, helps me to relax. Trying to watch my weight so I don’t have a heart attack.” among many other things he gave up. But he is “Still Drinking Straight Tequila”, “never said I was cutting out fun”. And fun is what the song is all about with a look at the changes one makes with age. On “Bad Dream”, Chris again slows things down and adds piano with Greg’s organ mixing in as he notes he cannot please his woman and ” I think I might lose her”. On “Had About All I Can Take”, he notes “the last year has been exhausting” “I’m sick and tired of how you treat me”.
On “Blues for My Dad”, Kid plays nylon string guitar, the upright bass, organ and percussion. The song has a slow jazzy, Latin feel as Chris tells the story of his early life and his loving thoughts back to those early days. On “TGIF”, “I feel like throwing myself a party” as he is ready to cast off the work week with Lisa Andersen joining in on backing vocals and with Chris on piano and Wurlitzer. “Never let You Break My Heart” is another slow-burn song as he says, ” I am going to walk out the door with my pride”. Tommy Castro guests on vocals with Chris on “Thankful”. They proclaim, “That I thank God every day for bringing you into my life”.
Chris may have sat at the feet of the masters in learning to play his guitar, and you can certainly hear tinges of the Kings in his notes, but he clearly is one of today’s masters. He has a powerful rich voice tinted in soul that is also is in keeping with those stalwarts of yesteryear. His lyrics are laced from the serious to humorous to the very emotional “Blues for My Dad”. An A+ effort from this very talented musician.
