Nine Lives - Steve Winwood (2008)

Winwood has had a pretty amazing career. A multi-instrumentalist who was a gifted soul singer already as a teenager with the Spencer Davis Group in the 60s, he formed the prog band Traffic, one of the era’s most interesting groups. He played on some of the top rock records of the 60s and 70s. He made massive synth-driven pop hits in the mid-80s, and kept on adapting his sound to radio-friendly tastes to keep making hits into the early 90s.

Basically, even though he’s seldom mentioned as one of great rock and pop stars, he stuck around longer and was more successful than almost any of his peers.

This later-career record is a mix of the smooth pop and the bluesy rock that marked different parts of his career. While none of it is essential, it’s all pretty high quality. There’s a lot of fun and funky polyrhythm added by percussionist Karl Van Den Bossche (readers of this space know I love a good conga player).

There’s a lot of energy for guy who was 60 at the time of this release. His voice is still great, and he can still stand out both as an insturmentalist (he plays all the instruments on the first track, and a great Hammond organ throughout) and as a bandleader.

Tracks I Liked

Dirty City - great tune, featuring a Clapton guitar solo that’s better than most of what he’s done in this century.

Hungry Man - a lengthy tune with a great lyric and a pretty complex afro-beat-lite arrangement.