CHUCK PROPHET : DREAMING WAYLON'S DREAMS

  1. Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way
  2. Waymore's Blues
  3. I Recall A Gypsy Woman
  4. High Time (You Quit Your Low Down Ways)
  5. I've Been A Long Time Leaving (But I'll Be A Long Time Gone)
  6. Let's All Help The Cowboys (Sing The Blues) (Stephanie Finch)
  7. The Door Is Always Open
  8. Let's Turn Back The Years
  9. She's Looking Good
  10. Dreaming My Dreams With You
  11. Bob Wills Is Still The King

Label : Evangeline Records

Release Date : 2007

Length : 45:05

Review (Amazon) : Limited edition repressing of this 2008 album from the former Green On Red member. Originally only sold on Chuck Prophet's 2008 tour, Dreaming Waylon's Dreams is a cover of the entire Waylon Jennings album Dreaming My Dreams. Chuck is a long-time Waylon fan and while they might all be covers, it's got Chuck's phrasing and guitar work all over Dreaming, making it far more of a Chuck album than a Waylon one. It rocks out when it needs to on the Duane Eddy-esque 'High Time', and keeps it quiet on the lovely "I Recall A Gypsy Woman". Chuck only ventures clearly off the path on the spoken-word version of 'The Door is Always Open', while Stephanie Finch takes the lead on 'Lets All Help The Cowboys (Sing The Blues)' and Chuck teaches Richard Hawley a thing or two on the title track. The album features Tim Mooney of American Music Club on drums and John Murry of the murder ballad fame backing them up. Decor.

Review (Penny Black Music) : Not happy with delivering one fine album this year, former Green on Red man Chuck Prophet releases the next, originally recorded in two days in January 2006, but now seeing the light during his current UK tour. This whole album is a complete cover version of Waylon Jennings' album, 'Dreaming My Dreams', a number one back in 1975. That first album was a tribute to Jennings' own heroes so it has now come full circle. Chuck, master of the telecaster opens with an old favourite, 'Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?' which is completely different from the fine version which Green on Red also recorded. This is played in finger picking manner, in a calming, charming manner and, perfect music to chill out too, is ideal for that early morning or late night music session. The second segment of 'That Is to Start With' is total guitar heaven, has a 70's Stones delivery and is a million miles away from the old country version, which Chuck used to play. 'Waymore's Blues' is delivered in familiar and slick style by Chuck. This is the real reason why the man has kept his loyal fan base. 'I Recall a Gypsy Woman' is laid back cool with a whiskey-soaked vocal and absolutely charming, while 'High Time (You Quit Your Low Down Ways)' is the sort of song that Green on Red would have done with relish, a true bar room blues number with sad violin to add to the sorrow. 'I've Been a Long Time Leaving (But I'll Be A Long Time Gone)' is very sad, very slo-core, a song to make you sob tears into your over priced pint. 'Let's All Help the Cowboys (Sing the Blues' is sung by Chuck's wife, Stephanie Finch. An old school country and western number, it will be loved and loathed by fans in equal measure. 'The Door is Always Open' is quite odd, experimental, hard to digest but worth it. 'Let's Turn Back the Years' is much more reflective, played on an old acoustic guitar and absolutely lovely. 'She's Looking Good' is a gentle rocker with a decent rhythm and groove. 'Dreaming My Dream With You' has an echo on the vocal and the whole song melts into your heart like a Lee Hazlewood number. 'Bob Willis is Still the King', which closes the album, has a great live feel and is a number to make you move your feet and swing those hips. A superb album.

Review (No Depression) : If you wanted to pick country music's Best Album of All-Time, you could do a lot worse than to put Waylon Jennings' Dreaming My Dreams on the short list. It's hardly surprising, then, that someone would come along to pay tribute to that masterpiece. What is surprising is that the "someone" has turned out to be Chuck Prophet. For a good while now, Prophet has been perfecting an entirely-a-creation-of-the studio approach that has often been just beautiful: samples and groove-centric arrangements combined with lyrics that are big on wordplay and short on narrative, sometimes earnest, sometimes winking, and sometimes who knows which. Even when you don't know what Prophet's songs are about in any rational sense - maybe even when he couldn't tell you exactly what they're about - his musical sense makes perfect sense. On Dreaming Waylon's Dreams, Prophet covers, in order, each song on the original LP, from "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way" to "Bob Wills Is Still The King", and not a note of it sounds anything remotely like Waylon Jennings. Which doesn't always work. After a snarling version of "High Time (You Quit Your Low Down Ways)", Prophet sneers, "Somebody is gonna drop on the kitchen floor like a wet sack of shit. Ow-ooo!" - but the effect is neither menacing nor amusing. And Prophet inexplicably turns "The Door Is Always Open" into a sound-effects-filled spoken-word piece that mainly comes off pretentious. Hank and Waylon did not do it that way. But those are the only real exceptions. On "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way", for instance, Prophet ends things with an agitated electric guitar solo that counts as his finest guitar rock moment since his Homemade Blood album in 1997. His version of "Bob Wills Is Still The King", meanwhile, sounds like the royalty it really serves is Sir Doug Sahm. Always, Prophet bends Jennings' work to his own will; he turns other people's songs into Chuck Prophet songs. That's the way Waylon did it, too.