J
immy Vivino – Gonna Be 2 of Those Days
11 songs – 56 minutes
If you’re a fan of late-night TV, you probably know Jimmy Vivino best from his 26-year run as the musical director/guitarist in the Conan O’Brien band, but he’s a bluesman to the core. And he delivers one of the most powerful albums you’ll hear this year with this set.
Jimmy’s spent most of his time working behind the scenes in the entertainment industry, scoring TV and Broadway shows and movies. And he’s toured acoustically recently with Bob Margolin, swapping songs and stories in sellout performances while also being a member of the new alignment of Canned Heat. But because of his day jobs, you’re probably not aware of his immense talent.
Now 70 and adept at guitar and keys, he’s regarded as one of the best sidemen in the industry, which began in his youth when he worked steadily with a who’s who of touring bluesmen, soul, rock and R&B artists when they toured New York and the Northeast. But believe it or not, this album is only the third release under his own name.
Gonna Be 2 of These Days was laid down and mixed by Rich Pagano (Marshall Crenshaw, Garland Jeffreys) at VlyLand Recording in Stone Ridge, N.Y., with additional recording in California, Woodstock, N.Y., at at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
All-original and timely contemporary blues at its best, the all-star cast includes Jimmy on guitar, Hammond B3, piano and vocals with backing from Pagano on percussion and Jesse Williams (North Mississippi Allstars) and Mark Teixeira (Duke Robillard) on bass. Joe Bonamassa sits in on guitar for one cut, John Sebastian adds acoustic guitar and harmonica to two and Scott Healy on accordion or piano on four.
As the title implies, you’d better buckle up for this one. Almost all of the material here is delivered with searing intensity with themes dealing with life during some of the darkest times imaginable. A six-string flourish from Bonamassa opens the driving “Blues in the 21st” before Vivino launches into the description of life in which everything you own is in a paper bag, you sleep wherever you can and “everybody’s got a mask on/Everything’s for free.” Without naming names, it delves into complaints about “talking heads making policies” and more.
The intensity softens somewhat for the funky “Ruby Is Back,” which warns of the return of a maneater who’ll turn your life into a living hell with a single look and stomp your heart in to the ground, and “Gonna Be 2 of Those Days,” a stop-pleaser that finds Jimmy in a drug-induced daze, seeing double and finding the electric company has cut off his power again and the fridge is bare.
Sebastian’s harp opens the rock-steady shuffle, “Beware the Wolf,” before yielding to the cautionary slow minor-key blues, “Ain’t Nuthin’s Gonna Be Alright,” which bemoans the loss of a friend, a home and much more. The tempo slows initially for “Better Days Past.” It picks up speed throughout as Vivino celebrates memories from another era while “the fools’ parade gains up momentum” and he wonders how long it’ll be before it’s passed. Another song of regret follows in “Fool’s Gold,” which bemoans the loss of a better life “when the grass was greener when you were standing on the other side of the gate.”
The music brightens but the suffering continues in “Crossed My Mind” as Jimmy remembers a lady who’d walked all over his heart before the accordion-driven “Goin’ Down Fast” warns that you’d better get your house in order “because the ship’s going down fast.” It gives ways to an alert about walking on the “Shady Side of the Street” before a trip to the Delta-flavored “Back Up the Country” concludes the action, finding everything’s changed there, too.
Sure, there’s very little sugar and light in this one. But don’t despair. It’s a winner on all counts!
