The one lasting moment for me in Morgan Neville’s otherwise infomercial-like new documentary Under The Influence (now available on Netflix), occurs when Neville offers that Keith has now become one of the bluesmen he so longed to be when he was young. Keith’s wide-eyed acknowledgement of this fact puts, for a brief moment, the past 50 years into stark new perspective — that music is an unbroken chain, and some musicians seem intrinsically charged with the responsibility to be those links.

I can see that now in so much music I’ve always loved. It truly is a form of alchemy, based on the principle that nothing can be created or destroyed, just re-shaped. Robert Johnson understood that, as does Bob Dylan and Jack White. Rock and roll’s value as a vehicle for self-expression will continue to be endlessly debated, but I’ve come to agree wholeheartedly with Keith that music either has “the feel” or it doesn’t.

This is what makes Keith’s solo albums so much more enjoyable than similar side projects by artists of his stature. Keith can make music now on his own with virtually no baggage attached to it. Rolling Stones albums since at least 1989’s Steel Wheels are now massive marketing events — “their best since Exile!” — with hopes of at least one or two singles finding room to live among current fashionable sounds.

The music Keith has been making with the X-Pensive Winos carries none of those expectations. It is who he is, and he’s always deflected the question of why he hasn’t made more it by saying his loyalty to the Stones (and perhaps more accurately, their multi-national interests) always comes first. So having Crosseyed Heart arrive now is a poignant reminder of Keith’s importance as a musician, and not just an image. As someone who has listened to the Stones my entire life, I’ve trusted Keith’s taste, and he’s never let me down. It’s assuring to know after just one listen to Crosseyed Heart that he’s still able to conjure that magic.

Here’s a track-by-track breakdown:

Crosseyed Heart — This brief solo country blues opener acts as the key to unlocking the many rooms within the album. While someone like Eric Clapton sounds like a stock broker playing blues today, for Keith it still sounds as natural as breathing.

Heartstopper — This moody mid-tempo adult love song seems a bit oddly placed in the number two slot, which makes it all the more compelling.

Amnesia — Like Dylan and Leonard Cohen, Keith has learned to work within the limitations of his aging voice, using all that nicotine damage to the fullest extent. It’s that voice that powers this track, another dark-hued rocker that runs on pure guts.

Robbed Blind — Keith’s previous two solo albums surprisingly didn’t feature any country songs, so this ballad can now take a place alongside “You Got The Silver” and “Dead Flowers.” Keith stated at the Toronto premiere of Under The Influence that this is his favourite song on the album.

Trouble — Keith-by-numbers, but the best single he’s produced in ages. This is the sound that thousands have tried to copy over the past 40 years, but Keith proves here once again that no one else can recreate his immaculate rhythm and phrasing.

Love Overdue — It’s interesting how Keith has become one of the last major purveyors of roots reggae. It’s one aspect of his sound that perhaps hasn’t held up as well as others, but this interpretation of the Gregory Isaacs hit doesn’t feel entirely out of place.

Nothing On Me — A classic groover in the Beast Of Burden mould, this track actually echoes the entire late-’70s Stones aesthetic where sloppiness became an entirely new art form.

Suspicious — Keith’s half-spoken vocal inflections achieve a new level of intimacy (or if you prefer, creepiness) here. Doesn’t really succeed as a ballad, mainly because the subject matter doesn’t suit a 70-year-old man.

Blues In The Morning — Now this is the shit. Drenched in slapback reverb that could place the setting in Chess Studios circa 1959, Keith digs deep, this time sounding like a man half his age. One of two tracks the late Bobby Keys appears on as well.

Something For Nothing — While it’s tempting to call this straightforward pop-rocker filler, it bears all the marks of the lazy output the Stones have been offering for the past decade. The one song on the album that probably could have benefitted from a Jagger vocal.

Illusion — A much better ballad than Suspicious thanks to a guest vocal from Norah Jones and a more sophisticated melody and arrangement. The smokiness is palpable.

Just A Gift — Another ballad, and perhaps one too many. Keith’s sad sack delivery runs against the album’s overall character, and the lush arrangement verges on overkill. This one could have been left off with few objections.

Goodnight Irene — Keith’s version of the Lead Belly standard is the album’s most welcome surprise. Ragged and bursting with heart and soul, it would have fit nicely on Let It Bleed.

Substantial Damage — This greasy funk number also turns back the clock, this time to the classic Sticky Fingers sound, where Keith truly earned the monicker The Human Riff. The interplay here between him and lead guitarist Waddy Wachtel is simply wonderful.

Lover’s Plea — Some vintage soul to wrap things up, complete with Memphis horns and a soaring key change. Again, Keith’s voice isn’t entirely appropriate, but as someone whose mission at the start was to turn young listeners on to R&B, it’s a fitting testament to how well he succeeded.

It’s kind of ludicrous that the Beatles-Stones rivalry continues to this day, but Keith recently fired it up again by stating in his recent Esquire interview that he thought Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was “rubbish.”

It’s not the first time he’s had choice words for the work of his peers; he was never a fan of Led Zeppelin, and his well-publicized verbal spat with Elton John a few years ago found him getting it back from the Rocket Man as good as he gave.

But while I’m positive Keith knew exactly what he was doing by slagging the album that is still considered the greatest work of the rock and roll era (at least as long as Rolling Stone Magazine is around), I have to, in some measure, agree with him.

I would never go so far as calling Sgt. Pepper rubbish, since the Beatles clearly achieved their artistic ambition in producing a cohesive collection of songs that highlighted each member’s personal musical vision far beyond what they had previously done, and would not be able to repeat on subsequent albums.

Yet, Keith’s point (I believe), is that Sgt. Pepper‘s triumph also proved the undoing of rock and roll as Keith and other roots music aficionados of the time knew it. It pushed the Stones to respond with the most disingenuous album they ever made, Their Satanic Majesty’s Request, with the upside being that it prompted Jagger and Richards to realize they no longer had to live in Lennon and McCartney’s songwriting shadow. The results: “Jumping Jack Flash” and Beggars Banquet.

So in that context, Keith’s opinion is entirely valid. It’s hard to think of Sgt. Pepper as a museum piece, but that’s what it’s essentially become, while Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile still sound as vital and dangerous as they did over 40 years ago.

I’m curious to hear any opposing views…

With the short-but-sweet Zip Code tour now wrapped, it’s welcome news that Keith will be releasing his third solo album, Crosseyed Heart, on Sept. 18 through Republic Records.

Have a listen to the first single, “Trouble,” here.

After all the hoopla in recent years surrounding the Stones’ 50th anniversary, and the endless stream of reissues, it’s certainly refreshing to hear Keith making new music. And while the X-Pensive Winos aren’t the Stones, it’s clear from this track that the chemistry Keith shares with Steve Jordan, Waddy Wachtel, Ivan Neville and Sarah Dash is still as potent now as it was when they last worked together in the early 1990s (is it really that long ago?)

There’s a natural groove — as only Keith can do — to “Trouble,” similar to the lead-off single from his 1988 solo debut Talk Is Cheap, which bodes well for the rest of Crosseyed Heart. Based on the press release, the 15-track album will touch on blues, country and reggae as well, including a duet with Norah Jones and a cover of Lead Belly’s “Goodnight Irene.”

Given the slim chance the Stones will ever make another studio album, I’m perfectly fine with Keith making solo records from here on out — and hopefully returning to some smaller venues like Toronto’s Massey Hall.

I’m looking forward to digging into the Sticky Fingers reissue soon, but until then my current favourite Stones-related track is Bettye LaVette’s cover of “Complicated” from her latest album, Worthy:

I’ve been a big fan of Bettye’s since she re-emerged on the scene with her 2005 album I’ve Got My Own Hell To Raise, and I had the opportunity to interview her a couple of times, including this piece for Paste. Her story remains one of the great examples of perseverance in the music business: A native of Detroit, she was manipulated and tossed aside by several labels there in 1960s, and had a similar experience with Atlantic Records in the early 1970s.

Those crushing disappointments–on top of many other personal battles–have formed the basis of the great records she has made over the past decade, and can once again be heard in “Complicated,” produced by the incredible Joe Henry, who first worked with her on Hell To Raise. Along with Mavis Staples and Sharon Jones, Bettye is among the few surviving female soul singers who have remained true to their art.

Surprisingly, she has done this in large measure through bringing out previously unheard nuances in obscure classic rock cuts, and the choice to do this Between The Buttons track is nothing short of brilliant. I’ve always been fascinated by this often overlooked album, precisely because there are great songs buried under some hit-and-miss arrangements, as evidenced by the two singles from the sessions, “Let’s Spend The Night Together” and “Have You Seen Your Mother Baby Standing In The Shadows.”

Perhaps it was a case of Brian Jones needing more leeway in the studio, or maybe he was given too much? The album is certainly the Stones’ least guitar-heavy record, although “Connection” (which Keith thankfully revived with the X-Pensive Winos), the glam rock blueprint “Miss Amanda Jones,” and the Bo Diddley acid rock of “Please Go Home” make up for it.

But as Bettye demonstrates with her version of “Complicated,” no matter how poorly executed some of the Stones pre-Jimmy Miller era sessions were, the Jagger/Richards songwriting partnership rarely ever let the band down.

The Stones just did their first Twitter Q&A, and it once again showed that fans often ask better questions than journalists.

At least, Keith didn’t seem to mind fielding inquiries about his past drug experiences, saying — among other things — that he finally gave up cocaine after his 2006 life-threatening head injury.

But apart from living a clean and healthy lifestyle (yeah right), he stated the secret to his immortality quite simply: “Go to church on Sunday!”

Read the full scoop at The Independent here.

“Keith Richards didn’t realize what he’d come up with in a dream until he played the cassette the morning after.”

The teaser for this piece posted at The Atlantic.com sums up the famous story of how Keith heard the riff for “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” in his sleep and managed to wake up and dictate it into a then-cutting edge cassette recorder before nodding off again.

The story also provides a nice description of how Keith originally envisioned the song as a straight-up R&B number, similar to how Otis Redding later covered it.

However, the idea of using horns was replaced with Keith playing the riff on another brand new technology, a fuzz box. It’s still incredible to hear Keith struggling with it on the master take, clearly stomping on the Gibson Maestro Fuzz-Tone a beat too early before the final chorus.

But of course, who cares? A half-century later, it’s still one of the greatest rock and roll songs ever written.

Click the link below to read the full story:

Click Ultimate Classic Rock‘s logo below to check out a nice capsule history of Keith and Woody’s short-lived 1979 band The New Barbarians, which debuted at the Oshawa CNIB benefit shows.

Fascinating tidbit: Neil Young was almost a part of it but couldn’t work around finishing his film Human Highway. Keith and Neil in the same band? The mind boggles…

Current view of the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio control room.

The storied history of the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio is getting ready to start a new chapter in, of all places, Calgary, Alberta. The truck has been in the city since 2001, when it was purchased for $200,000 by a local group that is behind the creation of the National Music Centre (NMC), set to open in Calgary in spring 2016.

Currently being restored by technician John Leimseider and his team, the mobile will be one of the NMC’s marquee exhibitions, although the organization also plans to put it to work once again. The truck will have a permanent parking spot outside Calgary’s King Edward Hotel, where musicians will be able to set up and replicate the experience the Stones, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and many other bands had using the mobile.

John Leimseider

“We’re not trying to make it a modern studio,” Leimseider told the CBC. “We want to keep it as intact as possible. It’s a very conservative restoration. But we also want it to work really well and as reliably as possible.”

The idea for the mobile first came about in 1968 when Rolling Stones road manager Ian Stewart was searching for solutions to quell the band’s growing displeasure with recording studios. The Stones wanted to record at Mick Jagger’s home, Stargroves, and rather than setting up a studio inside the house, it seemed to make more sense to have the equipment installed in a truck, which could thereafter be transported anywhere.

After the Stones laid down several tracks with the mobile later to appear on Sticky Fingers, other bands began inquiring about using it, resulting in the creation of much of Led Zeppelin’s III and IV at the country estate Headley Grange, and perhaps most famously, Deep Purple’s Machine Head in Montreux, as immortalized in “Smoke On The Water.” Following that, Ian Stewart drove the mobile to southern France for the Exile On Main St. sessions at Keith Richards’ temporary home, Nellcote.

By the 1980s, the mobile was being used primarily by British television networks for music specials, and in 1987 Stones bassist Bill Wyman used it to launch his AIMS project, giving young musicians access to produce high quality demos. In 1996, the mobile was purchased by a New York studio and brought to North America for the first time.

The mobile’s most recent look prior to its current restoration.

While Leimseider says it was an important investment for the NMC to acquire the mobile, restoring it has been a labour of love that he hopes will inspire a new generation of musicians. “This sort of forces you into a different way of recording and I think the bands that do that are going to gain something out of it they can’t get any other way,” he says.

WTF With Marc Maron – Keith Richards Episode