Search - Pete Sears :: Long Haul

Fun album with great playing and cool guests

Jeremy Baldwin | Ypsilanti, MI United States | 07/09/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Pete Sears is a well-known session player from England who made his name playing with Rod Stewart and Jefferson Starship among others.Since then he has been seen playing keyboards with Zero, the Steve Kimock Band, Phil Lesh and Friends, Leftover Salmon, Los Lobos and
Hot Tuna. He was also one of the select group of keyboardists who auditioned to replace Brent Mydland in the Grateful Dead. Pete is a tasteful player who blends jazz and blues in to a sort of psychedelic ragtime style.This release from Pete is not widely available yet, but it can be ordered from Amazon. Hopefully it will get a wider distribution, because this is a nice record with many highlights. Pete enlisted many of his Bay Area friends to help him out with this project. A few of the big name players are John Lee Hooker, Steve Kimock, Maria Muldaur, David Grisman, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady, Levon Helm, Charlie Musselwhite and Alvin Youngblood Hart. Even though there are so many different musicians on this CD it is held together by Sears? sterling piano and keyboard work.The album starts off in fine fashion with a raucous tribute to departed Quicksilver Messenger Service guitarist, John Cippolina. Pete and John actually played together in that band in the 70?s so this is a very heartfelt song written by Pete and his wife. Pete recruited Chicago Blues veterans Charlie Musselwhite, Nick Gravenites and Mark Naftalin to help out on this track and it ends up sounding like a lost Paul Butterfield song, which is a good thing.Grateful Dead lyricist, Robert Hunter helped out on two cuts, "Fair to Even Odds" and "Darien". Both sport Hunter?s typical cynical yet hopeful worldview and are sung nicely by Davey Pattison who handles the bulk of the albums vocals. He has a good bluesy voice that has some similarity to Pete?s former employer, Rod Stewart.Van Morrison?s gifted daughter, Shana Morrison also turns in vocals on a few tunes including "Dance with the Past" that features beautiful mandolin by David Grisman.One of the striking things about this album is the variety of different styles. Some of the songs are folky while others are more pop or straight-ahead rock. One of the nicest things about The Long Haul is the instrumentals that are peppered throughout the CD. This is where Sears really gets a chance to stretch out. "Old Friends" is a really nice little dirge with a great Steve Kimock solo while "Spitfire" is more of a funk workout.The only misstep is here is a song called "12 Long Years with No Parole". It is musically nice, but its message of decriminalization for marijuana offenses comes off as too heavy-handed to my ears.There are 18 tracks on this CD and over 70 minutes of music and the vast majority of it is excellent. The production is very good and you can?t beat the supporting cast. Pete Sears will probably never be as famous as the musicians he usually supports, but his playing helps define their sound. This album is another example of his talent."