Dial ’W’ For Watkins by Geraint Watkins. Bob Dylan: "Geraint is my favorite English pianist." GW has worked with Paul McCartney, Bill Wyman, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, a bunch of others, but I’ll bet you’ve never heard him, or even OF him. Unless you’ve heard Dylan play Geraint on his radio program.
Believe me, you’ve never heard a white man that sounds like Geraint. The album start with a quiet little meditation on existence, then without more than a second’s pause you next hear what sounds like could be a recording made in Mississippi or Alabama in the 1930’s or 40’s ("Turn That Chicken Down"). It’s AMAZING!
This is music making on a level rarely heard, by a very creative artist. Who would think to turn Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks’ precious Art-Rock mini-masterpiece "Heroes & Villains" into a Swing/Jump Blues tune with Scat singing? And it works! I LOVE this album!! Whereas most albums have songs all fundamentally the same as each other, there are no two alike on this one.
The album was released only CD only (sorry, you LP purists ;-) by Yep Rock Records in 2004, and is out-of-print. But Yep Rock has nationwide distribution, so there should be used copies out there, and for cheap.
