After the success of Scaggs’s previous incursion into rhythm and blues, the laid-back Memphis, the great man returns with what he claims may be the middle part of a trilogy.
A Fool To Care takes Memphis’ bluesiness and adds more warmth (the title track, Huey ‘Piano’ Smith’s High Blood Pressure) and guests (Bonnie Raitt on Scaggs’ Hell To Pay, Lucinda Williams duets on The Band’s Whispering Pines).
Scaggs has had an extraordinary career, from being a member of the Steve Miller Band in the 1960s to becoming an unlikely but super-classy disco king with Lido Shuffle and Lowdown in the 70s (and you should check out songs like I Just Go from his underrated noughties albums).
A Fool To Care is as casual and swinging as any of Scaggs’s heyday hits, but with a vintage quality of its own. This fine album could have been recorded at any time in the past 60 years, yet also could only have been recorded by this particular man at this particular stage of his career./o:p
