Customer Reviews

Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance

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Since nobody has reviewed this fine collection of songs, let me be the first to highly recommend it. This album includes all but two songs from Lane's '74 and '75 albums, "Slim Chance" and "One For the Road." Like Billy Bragg says, the former (Small) Faces bassist got about as close to that old-timey sound that the Band had as anyone else from Britain did. This collection finds Lane with a great big group of acoustic and electric instrument players, digging into blues, folk, Americana, British folk, and everything else you can imagine, as long as it has some tradition. Overall, this is uptempo music--not quite as loose-cannon as the Faces, but definitely optimistic and meant for a good time. My personal favorites include the reincarnation tale, "Stone," "You Never Can Tell," the sweet groove that "Don't Try To Change My Mind" works up, and the rollicking unison sing along of "One For The Road." The instruments perfectly fit each song--mandolins, fiddle, acoustic guitar, dobro, whatever fits the barroom mood. Lane's a great, underrated songwriter--under the veneer of the good-time rockers is some real reflective writing, an independent spirit as well as a unique, understated voice (his growl sometimes reminds me of his friend Roy Harper). The only downside to this beefy one-disc collection is that, in order to fit the bulk of both albums on, 2 tracks had to be cut ("Single Saddle" from Slim Chance, and "Snake" from One for The Road). This probably only bothers obsessive music collectors like me--most people would be happy to get the excellent platter of tunes served up by this album. Plus, it beats buying both albums individually, since they're both out of print and much more expensive than this combo. Highly recommended to fans of the Band, the Faces, Rod Stewart's early solo records, and generally to people who like good-time rock that digs deep into roots. Enjoy!

Update: Both albums on this compilation have been reissued in their respective entireties as Japanese Mini LP CDs, available on Amazon: Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance and One for the Road. Unfortunately these limited edition imports don't fill the need of affordable, good-sounding domestic reissues, it's worth the price for big fans to get great-sounding complete editions of both albums for the time being.

For old fans and new listeners alike, these two Japanese reissues (the other is One for the Road) of Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance's 2nd and 3rd albums are a welcome and overdue event. For too long, Lane's excellent earlier solo material (recorded just after his departure from the Faces) has been criminally out-of-print and hard to find, considering its quality.

The music: Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance (the album) is the second of his post-Faces output. Though it may be just a notch below his solo debut, Anymore for Anymore, it's still a sparkling 5-star effort. One good way to describe Ronnie's solo music is a more British version of what The Band was doing in America. Slim Chance played a blend of old-school rock and roll (check out the ripping rendition of Chuck Berry's "You Never Can Tell"), folk music, country, Americana, and even a bit of jazz and boogie. Despite this eclectic brew, what really holds the thing together are Lane's introspective lyrics, his good-natured attitude, and some really compelling original songwriting.

Some album highlights include the magnificent blend of violin and accordion on the opening waltz, "Little Piece of Nothing," the re-imagined folk/mandolin jam of "Stone" (which appeared on The Faces First Step), the groovy sax-driven instrumental "Street Gang," the clever lyrical conceits of "Anniversary" and "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself A Letter." Writing these highlights, I realize I'm naming nearly every track--indeed, there really isn't a weak one in the bunch, from the lurching early-rock sounds of "Blue Monday" to the soulful "Give Me a Penny" to the closer, "Tin and Tambourine," which rivals "Anymore for Anymore" as the most evocative take on Lane's desires to escape urban life for a truer and more simple existence in the country and nature. I guess the only thing really missing from the consistently impressive album is a couple of mind-blowingly outstanding tracks, like "The Poacher" or "Anymore for Anymore" from his debut.

This reissue: For anyone not familiar with the Japanese mini-LP reissues, here's the scoop. The CD is in a cardboard sleeve (a gatefold sleeve, in the case of this one), which is a to-the-letter reproduction of the original vinyl LP's cardboard sleeve. The artwork is pristine and high-quality, and liner notes are included in both English and Japanese. As a note, the black strip seen on the left side of the album's picture here is a removable paper band. Best yet, the sound on this reissue is the best treatment the album has yet received on CD--it blows away the Island/Edsel issue from the early 90's, and even tops the recent blue-cover compilation of the same name. Three bonus tracks are included (to my knowledge, they're unreleased), which only sweeten the deal. Yeah, this Mini-LP CD is expensive, but it's also a limited edition. Lane's earlier solo material has been long out-of-print, and sometimes fetches ridiculous prices (40+ USD for Anymore For Anymore, or upwards of 50 USD for the Island issue of this album). Be advised that the price of this item will only get higher as supplies dwindle, so if you're the least bit interested, I recommend that you pick it up now while it's still somewhat reasonably priced--most of these Mini-LPs jump considerably when the stocks run out. I think you'll find it a beautiful addition to your music collection, and worth the few extra bucks. If you're not willing to commit, I suppose I'd recommend the recent British import (with the blue cover) entitled Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance--it contains nearly all the original tracks from this album and One For The Road (minus one from each album). If you're not a completist or collector, this might be the way to go--in any case, Ronnie Lane's excellent solo music deserves to be heard and cherished by as many people as possible!

I've been listening to Ronnie Lane since the early 70s and have always enjoyed his music. This is a very fine album from a very sadly under-appreciated artist.This album is always played in rotation at our parties and it never fails that some guest will demand to know who it is. Beautiful sounds from a greatly missed soul.

Hard to believe(or is it)that in this bass-ackwards world that there are only two reviews on this classic two-fer recording of truth and grassroots wisdom from the Late Great Ronnie Lane. ONE FOR THE ROAD is a five star release in any book and has been sadly overlooked in this off-kilter age we live in. SLIM CHANCE is no slouch either.

No record collection is complete without and you owe it to yourself and to your children to own all of Ronnie's studio releases. They are all one of a kind, quality recordings of musicianship, truth and uncompromised individualism - all the way. One of the greatest songwriters of all time.

Cheers Ronnie!!

I'd been vaguely aware of Ronnie Lane since the Small Face days. But Marriott got all the airplay with the Small Faces, followed by Rod Stewart with the Faces. You really had to buy the albums to get to the Ronnie Lane stuff, and unfortunately, I never did...

Recently, the Bottle Rockets (my favorite band) covered one of Lane's Faces tunes-- Ooh La La-- live. I loved the song. (Ironically, Ron Wood did the lead vocal for Ooh La La for the Faces, but you can see an amazingly great Ronnie Lane Slim Chance version on YouTube.) Several Bottle Rockets fans strongly recommended dipping into Ronnie Lane's work, so I did. I started with Slim Chance, and got absolutely hooked! It's musical, fun, well-crafted and multi-dimensional. It's instantly accessible yet it gets even better with each listen. I'm in the process of collecting everything Ronnie Lane did, and there are gems all over the place.

But start here!

Nice collection of Ronnie Lane material, with nice sound quality to boot! I highly recommend this CD for your collection.

Of the 20 songs, 15 are written, or co-written, by Ronnie and they are excellent. Music ranges from folksy pop rock, blues, Caribbean, Cajun, bluegrass, and country. Two songs are instrumentals and Ronnie sings the rest with backup from the Slim Chance band. There are fiddles, mandolin, accordion, keyboards, horns, guitar, bass, and drums. The five covers are performed well, but they are not Ronnie's songs, and kind of interrupt the flow. The CD could benefit from re-sequencing. Recommended.

This items was in great condition and was shipped super fast over the holidays for a gift for my husband. He absolutely loved it and being a musichead, was really impressed with the condition of such an old item. Great seller and great item.