Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email


2025 June 23 • Monday

The 862nd Soundtrack of the Week is Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen's music for Homeboy.

The first track is "Travelling East", which has Clapton playing in a relaxed and melodic fashion, nothing crazy here but it's a nice melody and a good-sounding cue.

The same melody comes back a little more quietly in "Johnny", with Clapton playing slide on an acoustic guitar.

Then we step outside this recording for a bit of Magic Sam and his "Call Me if You Need Me". This is a little dangerous because it's a very different sound, much stronger, and Magic Sam's guitar-playing is like lightning compared to Clapton's flashlight.

On "Bridge" Clapton plays with some distortion and delay and the result is nicely atmospheric before exploding into an impressively heavy groove at the end. Drummer Steve Ferrone adds a lot as well. Michael Kamen is on keyboards in this band and Nathan East handles the bass.

Another blues artist follows, J.B. Hutto & The New Hawks with "Pretty Baby", a straightforward blues number with slide electric guitar.

"Dixie" is a spacy instrumental with Clapton and East playing resonant and billowy tones after which the A side concludes with "Ruby's Loft", a romantic-leaning and optimistic-sounding tune for the group.

The B side starts with "I Want To Love You Baby" by Peggy Scott & Jo Jo Benson, a great soul/blues piece with a harder edge than you usually hear.

Clapton then comes back with the short "Bike Ride", a simple and pleasant piece for solo acoustic guitar, followed by "Ruby", which has the same guitar playing arpeggiated chords with, apparently, a second track of Clapton playing acoustic slide added to it.

Next up is The Brakes with "Living in the Real World", a very '80s rock/pop song. It's pretty good.

Then the band comes back and Clapton is on distorted electric guitar. "Final Fight" has really impressive drumming from Steve Ferrone, who basically gets to solo while the other members of the group create a context for him.

This is followed by a reprise of "Dixie" and then "Homeboy", which is the same piece as "Travelling East".