Artist:     Nils Lofgren

Album:     Blue With Lou

Label:     Cattle Track Road Records

Release Date:     04.26.2019

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Although he’s known primarily as one of the ardent guitarists in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, and long ago and again today in Neil Young’s Crazy Horse, Nils Lofgren has made some mighty fine albums of his own. Among them all, at the far end of a fifty-year span of time, Blue with Lou stands sapphire-strong. Consistently accessible and enjoyable, and not the least bit melancholy, it shows just what a unique and vital talent Lofgren is, as a songwriter, singer, and of course, guitar player. It also serves as honorable inspiration for a revisit with—or God forbid initiation to—Lou Reed.

Back in the ’70s, Lofgren wrote the music, and Reed the lyrics, to 13 songs. Six appeared, split evenly in 1979, among Lofgren’s Nils and Reed’s The Bells albums. Two more surfaced later on Lofgren releases. Blue with Lou finally reveals the remaining five, plus a new recording of “City Lights,” from The Bells. Interspersed are six new Lofgren works, including the New York City-gritty title song, in tribute to his longtime, departed friend.

In the spirit of great rock ‘n’ roll, and seemingly with Reed’s chutzpah hovering, all 12 were cut live at Lofgren’s Arizona home studio with his crack rhythm section of bassist Kevin McCormick and drummer Andy Newmark. A variety of background singers often enhance the punchy affair, and sax star Branford Marsalis adds his horn like a colorful, flickering beacon in the island breeze of “City Lights.”

“Attitude City” and “Give” kick it all off, a one-two wallop of sharp, pointed rock, both of them ideal amalgamations of Lofgren’s and Reed’s very particular charms. “Talk through the Tears” then thrives on Reed’s terse twisting of 1950s doo-wop, complete with a male choir crooning. “Pretty Soon” follows a Heartland path, the stones laid by Lofgren alone, the familial aspects of his writing emphasized. Lofgren sings that way, with weight. His voice sways, and slithers and strikes. Its pitch is just as venomous, for instance, as his biting guitar during “Cut Him Up.”

Nils Lofgren is one of those excellent guitar players who have managed to craft an all-around grand album. Call it an artist’s album, successfully multi-faceted in purpose and execution.

—Tom Clarke