01. Who Do Call The Shots [03:52]
02. Shake Off Them Blues [03:05]
03. Where Has My Easy Gone [03:45]
04. Love Is Wicked [04:09]
05. When I Get To New York [03:50]
06. Lone Freighter's Wail [03:57]
07. So Lonely I Could Cry [03:33]
08. South Little One [04:18]
09. Mile Marker 41 [02:57]
10. Two Bends In The Road [03:14]

Ray Bonneville - Guitar, Guitars, Harmonica, Vocals
Geoff Arsenault - Drums
Eliza Gilkyson -Vocals (Background)
Richie Lawrence - Piano
Gurf Morlix - Bass, Guitar
Mark Norvel - Vocals (Background)
Rick Richards - Drums
Will Sexton – Bass

On 2011's Bad Man's Blood, singer/songwriter/guitarist Ray Bonneville revealed himself as a songwriter in the same tradition that begat J.J. Cale: equal parts blues, rockabilly, folk, country, and R&B. On Easy Gone, he establishes that he is also a unique stylist. His words and metaphors are skeletally spare, stiletto sharp. There aren't any extended guitar breaks. His pace is unhurried and deliberate, rhythm and melody parts of the same animal. Produced with Justin Douglas, Bonneville's band is small and his grooves tight. The settings in these songs are the American highway, the road in all its seduction and fury. His traveling characters are all vulnerable to the gnawing hole of loneliness; they're hungry for connection but can only inhabit it for a moment if at all, because they're haunted -- or pursued by -- the spirits of restlessness and movement. Bonneville has always been drawn to hard-bitten characters, not for what they signify, but simply for who they are. In the first person songs here, his narrator is inseparable from them. "Who Do Call the Shots" is a snaky, mercurial blues with snarling guitar lines that testify against the harsh blackness: "Four hundred miles of dark road on this no mercy night/Lie-telling shadows tryin' to fool my eyes...Riding a line thin as razor between eternities/used up luck against a long cold sleep…" "Shake Off Them, Blues," with its slippery, sleepy NOLA R&B, is deceptive in its emotional depth. "Where Has My Easy Gone," with Eliza Gilkyson on backing vocals, is sweet, weary Americana that asks questions we all have to answer as we age. "Love Is Wicked" contains a brooding Willie Dixon-esque groove that retells the eternal "Frankie and Johnnie" story with the drama of a film noir script. "Lone Freighter's Wail" is a tender, soulful, ballad whose title image bears witness to the lost and those who will be: "I wail for the old man/Alone on a porch/looking back on/what is no more….I wail for the drifter/who is like me/no direction/or sure place to be…" Hank Williams' "So Lonesome I Could Cry," with a low-moan harmonica and silvery guitars, is a modern country-blues that exemplifies its subject matter chillingly. The murder ballad "Mile Marker 41," uses sinister slide and fingerpicked electric guitars, a tense bassline, and martial snare; it connects directly to Cale's slow-churning grooves that ratchet tension like a coiled rattlesnake. The evil in its narrative is balanced by his protagonist's suffocating, consumptive paranoia. The songs on Easy Gone depict aspects of the wandering life without romanticizing it. Bonneville skillfully strips the veneer from popular illusions about the freedom of the road. His characters choose it or are cursed by it, but either way, they accept it as the price of doing business. Easy Gone is not just another chapter in his remarkable late-blooming saga, but the finest one to date. ---Thom Jurek, Rovi

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1. Tomorrow's Yesterday [3:19]
2. Under The Bridge [3:24]
3. July Sun [4:23]
4. Roll It Down [3:01]
5. Oxford Town [4:30]
6. Walk With Me [2:51]
7. Tiptoe Spider [3:31]
8. Slow Matin [3:01]
9. Who's Talkin' To Me [3:24]
10. Stand Real Still [3:33]
11. You Know What I Mean [3:21]
12. I Been A Train [2:37]

Personnel:
Ray Bonneville 	- Guitars, Harmonica, Slide Guitar, Vocals
Geoff Arsenault - Percussion
Richard Bell - Piano
Brad Hayes - Guitar
Colin Linden - Bass, Guitar (Baritone), Mandolin, Slide Bass, Slide Guitar
Jonell Mosser  - Vocal Harmony, Vocals
Bryan Owings - Drums
Joseph Spaminato  - Bass
Joey Spampinato  - Bass
Denis Taylor - Saxophone
Joel Zifkin – Violin

Roll It Down begins with a funky, roots rock-based "Tomorrow's Yesterday,", a song that immediately brings to mind the super-group Little Village featuring John Hiatt. The bassline is also more prominent here. "Under The Bridge" is another slow blues-oriented song that could draw comparisons to Robert Cray without the great blues guitar solo but with a credible backing keyboard. The relaxing nature of most of Ray Bonneville's work is ever-present through the baker's dozen of offerings, especially the bounce emanating from "July Sun." "You might know the way to go/If you ask a passing crow," he sings as Colin Linden helps out on mandolin. Most of the time the arrangements work but the title of the album gets the tracks off on the wrong foot, and they can't quite right themselves. The shining moment comes during "Oxford Town," a heartfelt duet with Jonell Mosser on harmony vocals, bringing to mind a possible duet between Daniel Lanois and Emmylou Harris. Another very good effort comes from "Walk With Me," a toe-tapping melody straight from Waylon Jennings with some fine guitar picking. Carrying the momentum during "Tiptoe Spider," this track showcases Bonneville at his best: vocal and guitar with minimal backbeat. Near the homestretch of the album, though, it appears that he is repeating himself ever so slightly. "Who's Talkin' To Me" sounds adequate, but the arrangement appears to have been done before. A Dylan-like attempt on "Stand Real Still" results in a creeping blues song that should be found on Time Out Of Mind. Finishing up with "I Been A Train," Bonneville has created another solid album blending blues, folk and a few things in between. ---Jason MacNeil, Rovi

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   1.  Don’t Look Back –4:40
   2.  Gust Of Wind –4:40
   3.  That’s Why –3:18
   4.  Oh It’s You –4:51
   5.  The Price You Pay –4:21
   6.  Canary Yellow Car –3:18
   7.  Foolish –3:28
   8.  Gone Too Long –3:37
   9.  Listen –3:50
  10. The Changing Sky –4:37
  11. Darlin’ Don’t Forget –2:54

Personnel: 
Ray Bonneville (vocals, guitar, harmonica); 
Brad Hayes (guitar); 
Colin Linden (electric, baritone & slide guitars, background vocals); 
Tim O'Brien (mandolin); 
Richard Bell (electric piano, Hammond B-3 organ); 
Terry Wilkins (acoustic bass); 
Johnny Dymond (bass); 
Gary Craig, Bryan Owings (drums, percussion); 
Linda Benoy, Keith Glass (background vocals).

Ray Bonneville combines electric blues motifs, a light sense of humor, and a pop approach to song-making. On pieces like the opening "Don't Look Back," with electric piano from Richard Bell, this combination comes across as a sort of Memphis Randy Newman. Colin Linden here produces this unique, memorable Canadian songwriter on his third album. Linden provides slide, baritone, and other guitar work on the album. Like Linden, Bonneville is adept at incorporating blues styles into accessible pop gems. Recorded in Canada and Nashville, this album features mandolin maestro Tim O'Brien on "Canary Yellow Car" and the Band's Rick Bell playing keyboards on five selections. Like the album, Bonneville is a constantly moving dual citizen of Canada and the United States. This broad base of experience reflects in an album featuring North American themes of pop, rock, and blues. ---Tom Schulte, Rovi

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