The is the sound of the Peace Train coming to a grinding halt. Cat Stevens, one of the 1970s’ most determinedly approachable, sweetly ingratiating folk singers, returns with the sparks-throwing title track from his forthcoming album Tell ‘Em I’m Gone. Yes, it’s an old prison blues song, memorably done by Lead Belly — and a damned credible one, at that.
Wait, Lead Belly? (The song was originally known as “Take This Hammer.”) Consider, however, that Stevens — who has gone by Yusef since his religious conversion led to a lengthy retirement from music — is working here with Rick Rubin. As a producer, Rubin has so often found that just-right, though utterly offbeat choice (think Johnny Cash, reimagining forever a song by Nine Inch Nails), and along the way he uncovers something in veteran artists that we couldn’t have imagined was ever there.
Same here. Cat Stevens attacks this determinedly dark tale of escape with a flinty gusto, pointing the way to a path so very different from the one he forged, acoustic in hand, 40 years ago. (Even his earlier revealed cover of Edgar Winter’s “Dying to Live” fit in to that sturdy image.) Turns out, “Tell ‘Em I’m Gone” was one of the first songs a young Stevens ever learned, and he’s clearly carried it with him, close to his heart, ever since.
Most of Tell ‘Em I’m Gone, due on October 27, 2014, focuses on original material, rather than on illuminative covers like this one — but you’ll likely never think of Cat Stevens the same way once “Tell ‘Em I’m Gone” is through. For an artist of his vintage, already in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, his songs woven into the very fabric of a generation, that’s a powerful gift.
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