J.J. Cale – Naturally

Listening back to this album again 50 years after its release and it still sounds as fresh, innovative and just brilliant as it did at the time. Its like having a warm jumper you keep going back to and wearing again. This album is faultless. One of the greatest debut albums of all time, packed with fantastic songs, many dealing with addiction, others with hog farming. "A shady lady took all my bread, ravished my body, Lord, and messed with my head". He was called one of the most important artists of his generation and that remains true. With this album and the sequel, Really, JJ Cale invented a whole new genre of rock n roll - swamp music at its finest.

J.J. Cale was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on December 5, 1938. It would be much easier to compile a list of those artists J.J. Cale has not influenced, then those he has, as the list is endless ... however, it would be safe to begin with Mark Knopfler of Dire Straights, Neil Young and Eric Clapton. Some have claimed that J.J. Cale shuns the spotlight and seems to have made a concerted effort to remain a cult figure for more the forty years, but the truth is, he was reserved and perhaps shy. His music may best be described as the “Tulsa Sound”, which is a mix of Country, Blues, and Rockabilly. He’s been working on variations of this theme since day one, managing to pick up and add something fresh with each outing. The guitar work of J.J. Cale is tight, smooth and most importantly, impossibly clean.

His music is very warm, like a summer night with the sounds of crickets and fireflies filling the air. His groove is infectious to say the least, very casual and easy to dig. You'll find nothing pretentious or overbearing here, just some of the smoothest, cleanest, thoughtful, toe tapping numbers you will ever hear, with Naturally being the one that changed it all. This is the album that showed Eric Clapton the direction he should be heading. This is the man who finally thirty-five years later would be making an album with Eric Clapton, and when you hear that Escondido you'll know what’s what, and who's who.

J.J. brings some fine soulful tunes to light here. The music is not cleaver, it’s real, the stories of a music-man who’s spent years on the road finding his own way, creating his own style, living by his own code and then laying it all out on this delicious album. His guitar work is amazing, but what’s really amazing is the time in which it surfaced. I’m not saying he was the first to bring this sound to the forefront, but he's certainly the best. The songs are well crafted, his voice is low (a voice like butter melting in the sun), and I’ve been told that Naturally was recorded almost live in the studio, as it possesses a contextual flow without messing with the knobs, the controls, or flavorful mixing. Naturally is magical, it’s real and it’s from the heart.

I remember speaking with him in a hot bar in Kentucky. I didn’t even know he was J.J. Cale, he just had some great stories to tell and I was willing to listen. He took his leave by saying that he had to get himself to work, which consisted of walking up on stage, playing some solo material and then being joined by his band. The show was hot, the air was hotter, I was sweating, yet I tell you truly, when the show was over, as the place was closing down and I was walking to my car, J.J. walked over, shook my hand, thanked me for the words and said, "You be safe now."

I was returning to Vietnam, but not before I got myself a copy of his record to ease me through the next twelve months.

*** The Fun Facts: John Weldon Cale styled himself "JJ" to avoid any confusion with John Cale of the Velvet Underground.

Review by Jenell Kesler

This is a fantastic pressing with the 1st press Los Angeles deadwax and 2nd label! Very nice soundstage/extension that you can hear into the music. Brilliant and highly recommended

Vocals too quiet on this pressing, overwhelmed and difficult to hear sometimes. The album is wonderful, so I'm gonna try to get my hands on a '71/'72 pressing to compare, and decide which to keep.

When this was available for MSRP this was a great press for the money, and it is still a great sounding record at current price. Just a shame it's harder for new buyers to get this.
Great re-issue as always from speakers corner.

Not as good as the other speakers corner i own espacially the lou reed transformer and taste of tea michael franks but still far better than the other craps you can get in a mall

This is great album! Arguably his best.
This pressing is fantastic. Huge bass, think reggae bass in the mix. As a bass player, I love this. The overall sound of this pressing is first rate. I haven’t compared it to my other copies.
If you can find this early version of Naturally buy it.

A fantastic album and excellent pressing! All songs are outstanding, but the final 2 are superb

My copy most closely resembles this one with a few variations:

"Shelter" is printed under the Shelter logo.
"Side A" is above the label info on the right.
There is no "Stereo" printed.
SRL 52009 & (SRL 52009-A) instead of SR 52009 & (SR 52009-A).
There is no info around the rim.
The ABC Records logo is a music note. I haven't seen any variations on here with that logo.

Any idea what version this one is?

One of my favorite albums from one of my favorite artists, I own MCA-37104 version, sounds good but lots of clicks and pops. Can someone advise me to the best US version?