Roadsinger (To Warm You Through The Night)

Yusuf/Cat Stevens

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 5, 2009)
• Original Release Date: May 5, 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: UMe
• ASIN: B001TN1EDO
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #478 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Product Description

In "roadsinger," the illuminating title track to Yusuf's new album, he asks, "Where do you go in a world filled with fright? Only a song to warm you through the night."

For decades, his has been the voice that has carried us through the darkness. One of the most influential and successful singer-songwriters of the last 40 years, Yusuf has provided the perfect salve for a troubled world--a beautifully nuanced, warm voice shielding us against harsh, turbulent times bringing songs of truth and hope.

Just when we need him most, Yusuf is back with roadsinger, an 11-song collection about the evanescent dreams of life and the promise that spiritual fulfillment brings for those who are ready to travel far enough.

"While writing these songs I was getting a new idea every day and every song said, `sing me', Yusuf says, sitting casually on a sofa in a hotel suite in Los Angeles. "You don't `make' the music; you just interpret something that's passing through you."

The enjoyment that comes in being part of this process of creating music is palpable in every note on roadsinger. And Yusuf is certain that every step of his amazing journey has led him to this place. "Songwriting is a life vocation if you're really serious about it," he says. "And, therefore, it comes from your experiences and the times, tastes and troubles that make up your life."

And what a life it has been. Born of a Greek father and Swedish mother in England, Steven Georgiou grew up in the shadow of the West End, London's equivalent of Broadway. On one end of his street was a statue of Eros, the Greek god of love. On the other were theaters that brought some of the best music ever written within feet of his doorstep. "Almost from day one when I decided to get into music, I wanted to write songs for musicals," he says. "I was so inspired by the great composers such as Bernstein, Gershwin, Rodgers and Hammerstein."

A self-taught musician, yusuf always felt that, like these seminal men of music, he had a voice and something to say. "I just had to wait for other people to discover it."

Of course, they did. As Cat Stevens, he sold more than 60 million albums. His tender-yet-passionate style became synonymous with the folk-based singer-songwriter movement of the `70s, although his music transcended any set place and time. Hits like "Wild World," "Morning Has Broken," "Father and Son," "Peace Train," "Oh Very Young," and "Moonshadow" remain as relevant and inviting today as they did 35 years ago.

Always a seeker of enlightenment and universal wisdom, his searching led him to embrace Islam in 1977 after reading an English translation of the Qur'an. There is nothing too posh or pious about Yusuf. His faith is expressed most beautifully in the universal truths of "All Kinds of Roses" from roadsinger. There's a stillness and deliberateness about Yusuf that comes from a place of serenity and surrender.

He smiles softly when he talks about picking up a guitar for the first time again in 2004. "It was that moment around dawn, morning time, when no one else was around. I decided to have a go and it felt so, so, natural. I could put my fingers exactly where they were 30 years ago (laughs) and yet it was so fresh. I think that was the most glorious of moments."

That reentry into mainstream music's atmosphere after a 28-year absence was the critically-lauded "An Other Cup" in 2006. People were relieved "that I didn't sound like I'd gone through some Frankensteinian transformation which made me sound like something else," Yusuf says with a laugh.

"An Other Cup" bridged his eastern and western sensibilities; whereas roadsinger is rooted firmly in the West. That shift happened subconsciously courtesy of a plane trip. "I remember listening to a playlist on a transatlantic flight of [music from] the `70s and that just captured my imagination. I said, `oh gosh, how great it was.' It was Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, Carole King, James Taylor, Neil Young, Elton John. But it was more the L.A. stuff and that may have edged me toward doing that again."

Yusuf traveled all over the world to record roadsinger including studios in London, Dubai, and others. He produced the album himself, with assistance on three tracks provided by producer Martin Terefe, best known for his work with Jason Mraz, KT Tunstall, James Morrison and Ron Sexsmith. Some of his musical friends--Michelle Branch, Gunnar Nelson, James Morrison, Terry Sylvester and Holly Williams, also chime in on backing vocals.

Much of roadsinger was recorded live with few overdubs, giving the album an organic, unpretentious feel. Yusuf says, "I borrowed from my own experience making `Tea for the Tillerman,' I realized that some of the best tracks were all live so I went back into recording things live again."

That adds to the immediacy and warmth of the tracks. "When you're doing it live, it has something to do with life right now, which is much more powerful than `let's try and overdub it again'," Yusuf says. "Essentially it's all done simultaneously and that makes it all more vital. The title track actually was a first take. I haven't done that since 1967," he laughs.

Yusuf also revisits his past on the compelling, lovely "Be What You Must" which opens with the lilting, delicate piano melody of "Sitting," an enduring hit from Catch Bull at Four. Accompanied by a children's choir, Yusuf bravely and boldly sings that in order to "Be what you must, you must give up what you are."

On "roadsinger," Yusuf praises love both divine and human. "Thinking `Bout You," is a pure love song of sweet devotion to one who simply makes the world better by their presence.

While much of the album is dominated by Yusuf's exquisite, tasteful guitar work, confident, layered arrangements punctuate the tunes, such as the horns on the lush "Everytime I Dream," or the cellos and violins that provide "The Rain" with a gravitas as Yusuf sings of the world after an epic flood.

Similarly, the searing "World O' Darkness" features some of Yusuf's most plaintive vocals ever captured on disc, often pierced by his piquant guitar work. Just as he examines war on "Darkness," on the yearning "This Glass World" he questions how we've isolated ourselves from others with our material possessions.

Both songs are featured in "Moonshadow," a musical opening later this year constructed around his catalog of songs. "'World O' Darkness' acts as a prologue to the planet in which we find ourselves," Yusuf says. "A world where only moon shines and there is no daylight. It becomes the goal of this one boy, who's very much a dreamer, very much a rebel, perhaps similar to myself, who leaves the social treadmill to find the lost world of the sun."

Like his best music over the decades, roadsinger is about a journey of love, after rejection; truth beyond illusion and, ultimately, hope from the opening track, "Welcome Home," in which Yusuf invites "all seekers this way," to the closing "Shamsia," a gentle, meditative instrumental, where he sends us lovingly back into the world of musical sunshine.

But, luckily for us, Yusuf says his musical "seeking" is far from done so we can count on him to keep looking for the answers. "Seeking the perfect song is always the task of every songwriter and you never make it," he says. "And that's a great thing, that there's always something more to write about, something more to sing out loud about."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Cat / Yusuf's very finest efforts EVER!, May 5, 2009

By	Robert L. Smith (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was pleasantly surprised by 2006's "An Other Cup," which is a superb album by any standard, but--to my astonishment--"Roadsinger" easily surpasses it, making this new album one of the very finest in Cat Stevens/Yusuf's remarkable canon. At first glance, the musical and cultural range here is not as broad at that of the earlier disc, and the overt references to Yusuf's Islamic faith are certainly considerably toned down, but, in this case, neither of these is a bad thing. What emerges instead is a much more focused and accessible record, whose folky gentility recaptures the Seventies glory days of "Tea For The Tillerman," and "Teaser and the Firecat." Yusuf's acoustic guitar playing, intricate, teasing, and gentle, is sweetly haunting, recalling (and maybe even outdoing) his work on his classic records thirty years ago. This is the true return of the Cat Stevens we knew in our youth, a re-emergence so startling and complete that not even the considerable charms of "An Other Cup" could have prepared us for it. Every single track here is a gem, and "Roadsinger" is nothing short of a full-blown masterpiece. The title track alone, with its beautifully-told tale of an outcast seeker, is well worth the price of the disc.

40 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Searching Cat Stevens returns, May 5, 2009

By	captdoherty (New York) - See all my reviews

I was very pleasantly surprised when I heard about this album and even more so when I listened to it.

Its existence shows that the return of Cat Stevens (in his new Yusuf persona) in 2006's "An Other Cup" was no fluke. Listening to it proves something even more wonderful- That the gentle searching and storytelling that was the essence of Cat Stevens' best work is back with a vengeance.

Top Songs on the album are "Welcome Home", "RoadSinger", "All Kinds of Roses" and especially "Everytime I Dream". Listen to it and feel the joy of a master songwriter and performer rediscovering himself and the world around him once again.

Welcome back Peace Train...and please tour in the USA!

37 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I prefer vintage Cat but this is still good, May 6, 2009

By	Sandy Kay (Twin Cities, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews

I have a strong bias toward Cat Stevens of the Teaser and the Firecat and Tea for the Tillerman era. That music was part of my growing up soundtrack, especially "Morning Has Broken," "Moonshadow," and "Peacetrain."

Listening to this new album made me wish once again that he had not given up popular music after his conversion to Islam. The decades have been kinder to his voice than if he had spent them singing in smoky clubs; his voice is much better than most of the old rockers of his era but is still darker and raspier and doesn't have the effortless ease it used to have. But there are moments on this CD when I hear the old Cat come out to sing.

I have slightly mixed feelings about the CD (do I love it or just like it?): I really like some songs, don't care for a couple, and generally like the rest but am not wild about them (though this could change with extended exposure). My favorite track on this CD is the title track "Roadsinger;" I liked it the first time I heard it. For me it is the closest to what I have always loved about Yusuf's songs, both musically and emotionally. His voice is not the best in "Welcome Home" and this song could have benefitted from another take (I read that this one was done in one take). The message of "All Kinds of Roses" feels a bit ham handed and the music isn't catchy or appealing enough to carry it. The final track is instrumental only and quite lovely. There are some references to Yusuf's faith but they are fairly limited. Overall, I don't like it as much as my oldies but it is good to hear him making music like this again. It had been way too long.

The liner notes are heavy on photos (especially photos that point to his earlier work, I guess for people who don't make the connection) and way too light on content. There are lyrics for only a few of the songs. Given that Yusuf's song often tell stories, the lack of lyrics or commentary on what inspired the songs is unfortunate. This may not be a big deal in the downloading era, but I still like to have liner notes at hand while listening to the music.

If you are a big fan of Yusuf/Cat Stevens (but not as nostalgic as I am for a particular couple of albums), you will probably enjoy this CD. If you aren't sure if you want the whole CD, I definitely recommend you buy the download of the title song "Roadsinger."