{"id":4347,"date":"2011-11-13T23:34:19","date_gmt":"2011-11-14T06:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=4347"},"modified":"2011-11-28T15:21:05","modified_gmt":"2011-11-28T22:21:05","slug":"chris-isaak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/11\/chris-isaak\/","title":{"rendered":"CHRIS ISAAK"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>CHRIS ISAAK
\nWhen one of rock\u2019s coolest crooners sings Sun Records classics, it\u2019s a good, good thing<\/h2>\n
\n

Chris Isaak can\u2019t stop laughing. He\u2019s at home in San Francisco, watching with rapt attention as his manager\u2019s playful Maltese runs, dives and slides across the floor. \u201cIt\u2019s hilarious!\u201d Isaak exclaims. \u201cYou can tell he\u2019s having fun.\u201d He\u2019s not the only one. On the new Beyond the Sun<\/em>, Isaak himself clearly has a blast crooning long-ago hits from Sun Records\u2019 1950s golden era. The influence of artists like Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis has always been audible in Isaak hits like \u201cWicked Game\u201d<\/p>\n

and \u201cBaby Did a Bad, Bad Thing,\u201d but\u00a0Beyond<\/em> finds him at last charging headlong into the songs that have informed his own music for more than a quarter century.\u00a0\u201cThis was the definition of a labor of\u00a0love,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Beyond the Sun<\/em> finds the California native putting his own stamp on tried-and-true evergreens like Cash\u2019s \u201cI Walk the Line\u201d and Lewis\u2019 \u201cGreat Balls of Fire,\u201d but unearths a few overlooked gems as well. \u201cI tried to go for a balance,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted to pick material the average listener would know. But I also wanted to use my expertise to say, \u2018Here are a few things you might not know, but might really like.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

To ensure authenticity, Isaak and his band\u2014bassist Rowland Salley, drummer Kenney Dale Johnson, guitarist Hershel Yatovitz, pianist Scott Plunkett and percussionist Rafael Padilla\u2014set up camp at the real Sun Studios in Memphis. \u201cWe recorded it like they did it in the \u201950s,\u201d he says. \u201cWe cut it all at one time, everybody in the room. No overdubbing, because that\u2019s cheating. I told the guys, \u2018This is the way it\u2019s going to be: If I\u2019m singing good, you better be playing good, because if that\u2019s my best vocal take, guess which one we\u2019re gonna use?\u2019 We had a ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isaak and company had so much fun, in fact, that they got a little carried away. \u201cMy manager asked how many songs we\u2019d cut and I said, \u2018I think we\u2019re up to 38,\u2019\u201d he recalls. \u201cAnd she said, \u2018Do you know how much it\u2019s going to cost to mix that many?\u2019\u201d Isaak narrowed the set down to 14 tracks for the standard album, although a two-disc special edition throws in another 11. \u201cI hope people go back and listen to the originals,\u201d says Isaak, 55. \u201cHopefully someone will say, \u2018I didn\u2019t know this body of music was out there\u2014but now I do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Lee Zimmerman<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHRIS ISAAK When one of rock\u2019s coolest crooners sings Sun Records classics, it\u2019s a good, good thing Chris Isaak can\u2019t stop laughing. He\u2019s at home in San Francisco, watching with rapt attention as his manager\u2019s playful Maltese runs, dives and slides across the floor. \u201cIt\u2019s hilarious!\u201d Isaak exclaims. \u201cYou can tell he\u2019s having fun.\u201d He\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[2827,2615,10156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4347"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4347"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4459,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4347\/revisions\/4459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}