Come A Little Bit Closer - the best of [pre-listen]

WILLY DEVILLE The Best Of: Live - Come A Little Bit Closer (2011 - CD album) - The late Willy DeVille was one of the finest American songwriters of his generation. Drawing influences from blues, rock, Cajun, latin, country and more he created a rich blend of music that acknowledged its roots but was uniquely DeVille. He was also a consummate live performer with a style, charisma and presence that few could match. This new compilation brings together these two elements to giveyou the Best Of 'Willy DeVille Live'. Tracks are taken from performances ranging from Amsterdam in 1977, through concerts at Nijmegen and Montreux in the 80s and 90s and into the 21st century with concerts from Berlin and back to Amsterdam in 2005. The album gives a true reflection of just how good Willy DeVille was as both songwriter and performer and what we have all lost with his passing. Includes 'Spanish Stroll', 'Cadillac Walk', 'Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl' and the Oscar nominated 'Storybook Love').

Pre-listen tracks:
01 Venus of Avenue D [DeVille] 5:47
02 This Must Be the Night [DeVille] 3:24
03 Love and Emotion [DeVille] 4:09
04 Savoir Faire [DeVille] 3:14
05 Just to Walk That Little Girl Home [DeVille, Pomus] 4:42
06 Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl [DeVille] 5:16
07 Slave to Love [Ferry] 4:23
08 Slow Drain [DeVille] 4:56
09 Demasiado Corazon (Too Much Heart)[DeVille]4:47
10 Little Girl [Berry, Greenwich, Spector] 4:37
11 Storybook Love [DeVille] 4:04
12 Can't Do Without It [DeVille] 4:06
13 Hey Joe [Roberts] 4:39
14 Just Your Friends [DeVille, Nitzsche] 3:30
15 Steady Drivin' Man [DeVille] 6:05
16 Cadillac Walk [Martin] 5:05
17 Spanish Stroll [DeVille] 5:03
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Come A Little Bit Closer - Examiner review by Sterling Whitaker

On Tuesday Eagle Records released Come A Little Bit Closer: The Best of Willy DeVille Live. The 17-track CD features material compiled from concerts in Amsterdam in 1977 and 2005, interspersed with other tracks from the Eighties, Nineties and into the new millennium from tour stops in the Netherlands, Montreux and Berlin. "Venus of Avenue D" immediately introduces the listener to some of the hallmarks of DeVille's writing, with the big dynamic shifts that often characterized his dramatic live shows. "This Must Be the Night" is a perfect marriage of melody and rock and roll that begs the question, did DeVille influence Bruce Springsteen or was it the other way around? It's ironic that two artists who seemed to have many elements in common had such disparate commercial fortunes, but then again, DeVille's outlandish personal style, not to mention his impossible-to-characterize range of songwriting, must have made him considerably more difficult to market than Springsteen's Everyman persona. Other standout tracks include "Just to Walk That Little Girl Home," a perfect example of DeVille's penchant for marrying unusual percussion tracks to instrumentation like accordions and horns. The sheer range of his writing is apparent throughout. "Demasiado Corazon (Too Much Heart)" explores a Latin feel with saxophones, while "Just Your Friends" is underpinned by acoustic guitar and percussion before violins and harmonicas join in with another trademark dramatic dynamic shift. "Hey Joe" is a very unusual mariachi arrangement of the Jimi Hendrix classic, while "Can't Do Without It" is a bluesy lament with female background vocals. "Storybook Love" is a restrained piano ballad that got DeVille and Mark Knopfler nominated for an Academy Award. The set closes with "Spanish Stroll," a rocker with slide guitar solos.

If you don't like Willy DeVille, this collection is unlikely to convince you otherwise. It is what it is: a series of snapshots from the career of one of the most uncompromising singer/songwriters ever to emerge in the rock idiom. DeVille's music and idiosyncratic persona were undoubtedly a little much for some fans. But if you're a fan of Willy DeVille, the New York rock scene, or just diverse singer/songwriter material, you should find a lot to like about Come A Little Bit Closer. An audio CD can't capture what DeVille really brought to the stage, but it can sure remind us all why he was so well-regarded as one of the stronger writers and peformers of his era. [Sterling Whitaker is a Nashville-based journalist and author]
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- It’s simply an amazing collection any music lover and or music player would be proud to own. Definitely check it out. [Shakefire]
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The songs on this collection are well chosen. They are lively, effortlessly reflecting the quality of DeVille’s music. I do not envy the work of those who pored over the countless selections, those who had to choose the best of many. Come A Little Bit Closer is an enviably representative set of the best Willy Deville offered via his many Live performances. [MusicTAP ... essential]

Brilliant, Shook-Up Guy

[DAPR/Zuma Press - Willy DeVille inspired British pop invaders Tears for Fears and Culture Club]

British teens in the late '70s grasped the importance of singer-songwriter Willy DeVille way before the pierced rockers at New York's CBGB or Max's Kansas City. Mr. DeVille's originals were intricate mashes of blues, soul and rock, and he struck an emotional chord with the English, who identified with his hypnotic melodies, lovesick lyrics and tortured stage persona.

Virtually forgotten today, Mr. DeVille—the late founder and frontman of the American punk-art band Mink DeVille—is now being reconsidered with the release Tuesday of "Come a Little Bit Closer: The Best of Willy DeVille Live" (Eagle Rock). As the 17-track CD demonstrates, Mr. DeVille was a composer and belter of enormous complexity.

Recorded between 1977 and 2005, the new compilation features live performances in Berlin, Montreux and the Netherlands. All of the remastered selections are breathtakingly contemporary and offer fresh insight into Mr. DeVille's gritty rock romanticism.

Mink DeVille recorded six albums between 1977 and 1985—including three produced by Wall of Sound mastermind Jack Nitzsche. After the original band broke up, Willy DeVille continued to perform and record with a backup group known as the Mink DeVille Band, attracting strong audience reaction in Europe. From 1987 on, he appeared as Willy DeVille.

In some respects, Mr. DeVille's music was too earnest and artsy for the States. Rail-thin, he often appeared with a thick pompadour, rat's-tail moustache and open shirt—the personification of a gigolo at a cheap resort. In later years, his look was given a Zorro-esque overhaul.

But there was creative heat and pain in Mr. DeVille's eerie, edgy look and sound. While his punk-roadhouse fusion sailed over the heads of many at home, his approach inspired many British pop invaders of the '80s, including Tears for Fears, Human League and Culture Club.

Born William Borsey Jr. in 1950 in Stamford, Conn., Mr. DeVille was a chronic collector of obscure R&B and rock records. After dropping out of high school, he moved to London for two years before returning to New York and the punk scene. He started Mink DeVille in San Francisco but relocated the band to New York in 1975, where it built its reputation.

Deep down, Mr. DeVille was a passionate collagist. His songs tastefully flicked at past references and artists such as Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen and Ben E. King without ever lingering long enough to be considered derivative or retro.

For example, "Little Girl" on the new CD incorporates motifs from The Drifters' "Under the Boardwalk" and Arthur Alexander's "Anna (Go to Him)." On "Venus of Avenue D," there are hints of the Temptations' "My Girl" bass line blended with riffs from Fats Domino's "Little School Girl."

On "This Must Be the Night," his vocal soars with growls but then it dips down for a gospel confessional on "Storybook Love," which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1987 as the theme to "The Princess Bride."

Perhaps Mr. DeVille's best-remembered song is the haunting "Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl." And his Tex-Mex barn-burners "Demasiado Corazon" and "Spanish Stroll" go so far as to incorporate doo-wop and Dylanesque folk touches. Also on this collection is a muscle-bound version of "Slow Drain," one of Mr. Deville's most dynamic and experimental recordings.

A onetime heroin addict, Mr. DeVille died at age 58 in 2009 from pancreatic cancer. As this new album makes clear, he was a punk eclectic with a heart of golden oldies and Joe Cocker's pipes. A seedy sophisticate, Mr. DeVille was decades ahead of his time, and on this new CD, his music still gleams like old chrome.
[By MARC MYERS / source: Wall Street Journal|A&E]

Hook Herrera & Coup de Grace

Hook Herrera and Dutch band Coup de Grace played at the 19th Kwadendamme Bluesfestival May 13th, Borsele Holland.


More pics by AV Photgraphy [© 2011 - The Blues Alone?] and a photoreview at the Dutch Bluesforum [Program poster]

Hook Herrera
Born in San José (Los Angeles-USA) moved to Spain from where has published two CDs. He started as guitar player, passing later to the harmonica too, we will get attention in his harmonica facet, whose extracts a rolling sound which build a personal atmosphere, where we find his love toward the sound West Coast, coalitions with the Jive, his melodic harmonica, softness and hardness and his Chicago sound. He coincided at the end of the 80s and earlies of the 90s with such some big ones as William Clarke, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, even joined a season with the Allman Brothers. And of course with Willy DeVille...

Hook Herrera & Willy DeVille 02/07/2008, Sala Bikini - Barcelona [by velvetwings]

Great War song by DeVille Band w/ Hook Herrera

'Low Rider' a great War song by the Willy DeVille Band with Hook Herrera on harp live in Paradiso Amsterdam Holland (2006) from the dvd 'Live In The Lowlands'.

I call your name, Willy...

E’ vero, e lo Zig Zag Social Club l’ha condiviso all’unanimità, che la scomparsa di Willy De Ville ha rivelato una miseria umana e artistica nel mondo del rock’n’roll che ci ha lasciato freddi e perplessi. L’introduzione di Mauro Zambellini a Willy De Ville è partita proprio da qui, ovvero dal fatto che a due anni dalla sua morte nessuno (salvo un illuminato Peter Wolf che l’ha celebrato nel suo bellissimo Midnight Souvenirs) sembra più ricordarsi di lui. Eppure Willy De Ville è stato un grande, un grandissimo personaggio della storia recente del rock’n’roll (e non solo): dagli indimenticabili esordi come Mink De Ville, con gli squarci metropolitani di Cabretta e Return To Magenta, alle svolte di Parigi con Le Chat Bleu e di New Orleans (con Victory Mixture e Le Loup Garou) fino al ritorno sulle “colline del blues” (Marino Grandi docet) e dentro i suoi trascorsi con le sostanze (“solo”) chimiche, Zambo ha raccontato con il consueto savoir faire la vita, la musica e tutto l’immaginario di uno straordinario principe della notte e dell’amore: Doc Pomus e Mark Knopfler, Jack Nietzsche e Carlo Ditta, Edith Piaf e Capitan Uncino, il Chelsea Hotel e il bayou, i vampiri e i fantasmi, Tootsie e Lisa, i mantelli e le sciabole, il rhythm and blues e il tex-mex, Lou Cortelezzi e Kenny Margolis, i cavalli e i cappelli, Alphabet City e il Quartiere Latino, i denti d’oro e l’eroina, i bad boy e i mohicani, Brigitte Bardot e Billie Holiday, il soul e il voodoo. L’ultima, vera rock’n’roll star. Un grazie a Zambo (lo aspettiamo, attenzione attenzione, per i Kinks) e come sempre un grazie anche a Elena (Barusco) per le fotografie. [Pubblicato da Marco Denti SigZag]

'Spirit of Mink DeVille' - The 2nd Annual

There will be another Willy DeVille Memorial Concert with Mink Deville Band Members Aug 31, 2011 at BB King's, NYC.

Preliminary line-up:

Guitars:
Mark Newman
Louis X. Erlanger
Ricky Borgia

Keys:
Bobby Leonard
Ken Margolis
Darin Brown

Sax: Crispin Cioe

Bass:
Joey Vasta
Bob Curiano
David J Keyes

Drums and Percussion:
Shawn Murray
Boris Kinberg

August 31, 2011
Showtime @ 8:00PM
Doors Open @ 6:00PM
Tickets $20.00 in advance, $25.00 day of show

Steady Driving Man - Aug 23th 2010 [highlight by rickster29]

WILLY DEVILLE BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION SHOW [Aug. 23th 2010]