Ready for Love

John Hammond | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 11, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Back Porch
• Copy Protected
• ASIN: B000087DS3
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #181,370 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still in the Waits groove, but wait...there's more, April 3, 2003

By 

"nedray" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ready for Love (Audio CD)

It seems everyone who bought Wicked Grin wsa either a Waits fan or a Hammond fan. I was one of the former, never having connected with Hammond's take on traditional blues. Even on Wicked Grin, I thought he sounded a little like a lounge lizard at times, even while I was sort of irresistably drawn to the album.
So I wasn't really looking out for John Hammond's new album. I saw it on a Border's listening station and tried it out from idle curiosity. The first tune "Slick Crown Vic," had me thinking this wasn't bad--still making the same general kind of noise he made with Waits. "Easy Lovin'" had me grinning at the choice of such a song. But "Spider and the Fly" sealed the deal. The rhythm guitar and the sly, growly vocals, along with an insistent, sinuous groove, just made me believe a song and its master had finally met. The Stones did it well, even at their young age at the time, but that song was made for this treatment.
That to me is the highlight of the album, but it doesn't slide far from that level. The two Waits songs are right in keeping with the previous album. The two George Jones songs are just the durnedest thang to hear a cover of anywhere, but guaranteed make you smile with glee. The only song I think could have been traded for something elsse is his take on "Money Honey." Not that it's bad--the world just doesn't need another cover of that song.
I wouldn't put this album in the blues box--or any other box for that matter. It's not for guitar freaks or crooners or any other "interest group." It's for anyone who's ever lived and been tempted by the seedy, sensuous, side of life. If you've ever "said 'Hi' like the spider to a fly," this album is for you. If you ever got real happy just by hearing a song done just right, this one has some real happy in store for you.
I didn't plan to buy it, but once I heard it, I couldn't live without it. I second the other writer's nomination for "Best of the Year." It's just cool.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Cryin' Shame, March 1, 2003

By 

D. Sean Brickell (gorgeous Virginia Beach, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ready for Love (Audio CD)

Why, oh why is there no justice in music? If half of today's so-called superstars released a disc half this good, it would be on the charts for months. As is, Mr. Hammond has given us an absolutely brilliant (I hesitate to use the "M" word, but hey, here I go anyway!) MASTERPIECE that too-few will ever hear. It's a cryin' shame, I tell ya.

Call me short-sighted in my forecast, but I'll lay even money this is on my "2003 Best-Of" list, regardless of what's still to come in the months ahead.

I figured Mr. Hammond had peaked on his last, a tribute to Tom Waits and produced by none-other. Maybe so. While this CD is no better, it sure enough ain't any worse.

And that says it all. Buy the CD.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tour America's back roads with John Hammond, February 18, 2003

By 

Richard J. Orlando (Mount Laurel, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ready for Love (Audio CD)

It gleams ambulance white and bubble gum pink. Matching interior. With a front seat like a sofa, and a back seat the size of a porch, this sweetheart is powered by a V-8 so confident it has no need to roar. It purrs.
Take a tour of America's back roads with with John Hammond in his slick Crown Vic.
Rambling, for forty plus years now, Hammond is the consumate tour guide, never telling the same story the same way twice: he'll turn a true story into a fable of wonder or polish a lie until you can see straight down to it's core of truth.
He delights in showing us the beauty in what we routinely overlook or purposely avoid. On "Ready for Love", it's country and western music as he does songs by Freddie Hart and George Jones. There are two more Tom Waits compositions and Waits' presence can be felt in Hammonds on "Slick Crown Vic" which gets this collection primed for a smooth ride.
He performs a jazz vocal standard like "Comes Love" with the same ease that he brings to the obscure Jagger-Richards track, "Spider and the Fly" (a highlight).
He gets us to listen anew to the Little Richard/Elvis Presely "Money Honey" by giving it a complete overhaul, and brings a swamp vibe harkening back to "Ground Hog Blues" for 1973's unfairly recieved "Triumverate", to Willie Dixon's "Same Thing", another warhorse.
Producer David Hidalgo of Los Lobos also salvages two songs from his 1999 side project "Houndog".
Holdovers in the band from last year's brillant "Wicked Grin" are Augie Meyers: piano and Stehpen Hodges: percussion.
Whether you'd just discovered John Hammond through his association with Waits or you've been with him for a while, change the oil, wipe the windows and enjoy the ride.