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When blues veteran Chris Cain was going over new material with producer Kid Andersen, they accidentally came across a song called Blues for My Dad.
It was a demo Cain had recorded but never intended to be on his new record, Good Intentions Gone Bad. The California blues guitarist had simply written it as an exercise when working in a new Martin acoustic guitar his friend gave him a few years back.
So despite the obvious personal and autobiographical elements in the lyrics, Cain initially did not want it on the album, which was released earlier this month on Alligator Records. But Andersen was adamant that it needed to be there.
“He just ground me down,” says Cain, in an interview with Postmedia. “He made this video that went with it. When I listened to it, there was this video that he made that was pictures of my mom and pop and all this stuff. It was very emotional. He ground me down because I went kicking and screaming, saying ‘This is not for this record.’ He had a lot of love invested in this thing. The end result, when we played it, was really emotional. I thank him for that because it would never have been a tune, it would have just been this exercise.”
Blues For My Dad is one of the many stand-out tracks on Good Intentions Gone Bad, which features a compelling overview of multiple blues subgenres, soul, R&B and other strains of roots music that Cain has mastered over the past three decades. The poignant song is a perfect fit, and not only because it’s an assured example of acoustic blues. It also seems like a full-circle moment. Like his 2021 record Raisin’ Cain, Good Intentions Gone Bad was recorded by Andersen’s revered Greaseland USA studio in San Jose, the city where Cain grew up and was introduced to the blues by his music-loving father.
On Cain’s third birthday, his dad took him to see B.B. King at the San Jose Civic Auditorium. When it was discovered that young Chris was celebrating his birthday, the legend brought him on stage and asked what he wanted to hear. The three-year-old blurted out “rock ‘n’ roll.” It began a tradition for Cain and his father, who would eventually take his son to see Ray Charles, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter and Albert King concerts.
But B.B. King remained a favourite and father and son never missed his annual return to the auditorium. Among the most impressive endorsements that Cain received during his career was from the blues legend, who is quoted as saying “Chris Cain? That boy can play the guitar.”
“We would always go see B.B..” Cain says. “My dad has all his RPMs, 78s and all that stuff. My dad knew about B.B. King way before The Thrill is Gone. In our house, it was the big stuff.”
It’s a great introduction-to-the-blues story for Cain, who was still in his teens when he began cutting his teeth in various blues outfits in the San Jose scene in the 1970s. He was considered a prodigy, showing prowess on saxophone and keyboards and especially guitar. While Good Intentions Gone Bad is a showcase for Cain’s songwriting, the spotlight is still on his remarkable guitar playing and soulful, smoky vocals, both of which are clearly influenced by B.B. King.
The new album offers some of Cain’s hallmark sounds, but also some new ones for the artist. He says the soulful, piano-led ballad Waiting for the Sun to Rise, which features Andersen’s beautiful mellotron string arrangements, is new territory for him as a writer. On the other hand, the endearing shuffle Still Drinking Straight Tequila is a direct reference to Cain’s decades-old favourite Drinking Straight Tequila, the opening track from his 1997 record Unscheduled Flight.
“When I first signed with Alligator, they were all talking and said ‘Too bad Chris can’t record Drinking Straight Tequila again on Alligator,” Cain says. “(Alligator Records founder) Bruce Iglauer said ‘But maybe he can record Still Drinking Straight Tequila.’ So I said ‘OK, I’ll try and write this.’
Chris Cain will be making his Calgary Bluesfest debut with two performances on Aug. 3, including a main stage show at Millennium Park (now Cowboys Park) at 7 p.m. and a 10 p.m. show at the Kirby Centre as part of the Twilight Blues Series.
Fans can expect to hear a number of new songs from Good Intentions Gone Bad. It’s Cain’s 16th studio album, arriving 37 years after his debut, Late Night City Blues.
“I swear I thought I would make one,” he says. “I just made that one because I wanted to get some dates around town and I thought if you give people a record they won’t throw it away. They’ll pay attention. It just kind of blew up in my face and turned into this whole thing, I was travelling and all that stuff. Every record I make I try to make a good record. I always enjoy the experience.”
Chris Cain plays the Calgary Bluesfest on Aug. 3 at the Millennium Park (Now Cowboys Park) at 7 p.m. and the Kirby Centre at 10 p.m.