James Lee Stanley and Cliff Eberhardt All Wood and Doors Review by Gary Hill
This is an extremely interesting project. While it’s listed as a duo there are a number of guests (some quite notable). These are all acoustic rock reworkings (basically deconstructions) of Doors songs. Along with the two starring players there are such notable musicians present as John Densmore, Robbie Krieger, Peter Tork and Timothy B. Schmitt. These recordings create new identities for well-known songs. This is an enchanting set that works extremely well.
Track by Track Review
Break On Through
This is cool. It’s got a bouncy groove and a real blues element to it. It is, of course, a full acoustic guitar based treatment of the Doors classic. There is a bit of a reggae element in play here, too.
Love Me Two Times They turn this classic tune into a smoking hot acoustic blues tune that works really well.
Take It As It Comes Here’s a tune that’s got some psychedelia built into it. It’s far less bluesy than the first pieces. It works really well in this acoustic guitar based treatment. The pace is leisurely adding much to the lyrical content. The vocal arrangement is involved and quite cool. There’s some cool guitar soloing, too.
Strange Days A slow moving, bluesy number, this is a cool rendition.
Light My Fire We get some seriously intricate guitar soloing on this number. There is a bit of a Latin texture to it.
Touch Me Here’s another mellow acoustic rendition of a Doors classic.
Crystal Ship “Crystal Ship” was always one of my favorite songs by The Doors. This rendition captures much of that magic, while deconstructing the number. The guitar and vocal performances are both spectacular.
Soul Kitchen There’s a bit more energy on this number. The vocal performance has a lot of style. It’s a real smoking hot tune.
People Are Strange The slow motif that starts this somehow resembles Led Zeppelin’s classic “Stairway to Heaven” a bit. The vocals bring new sounds and there’s a real bluesy element here. There’s an awesome electric guitar solo on this.
Moonlight Drive A slow moving tune, this has an intriguing musical texture. This rendition brings a bit of a jazzy flair to the table.
Riders On The Storm Bouncy and bluesy, this is a cool rendition. Again there’s a bit of a jazzy element brought to the proceedings.
The End Multiple voices bring this in and as the instrumentation joins that chorus of vocals continues. There is definitely a bluesy feeling to this. Still, it’s also rather psychedelic.
