Details

Track Listing 1. Inner Flame, The - Giant Sand/Rainer Ptacek 2. Rude World - Robert Plant/Jimmy Page 3. Good Book, The - Emmylou Harris 4. Rudy With a Flashlight - Evan Dando 5. Something's Gotta Be Done - Victoria Williams/Mark Olson 6. Where's That At - Vic Chesnutt/Tina Chesnutt 7. One Man Crusade - Kris McKay 8. Losin' Ground - PJ Harvey/John Parish/Eric Drew Feldman 9. Worried Spirits - The Drovers 10. Life Is Fine - Madeleine Peyroux 11. 21 Years - Robert Plant/Rainer Ptacek 12. I Am a Sinner - LK 13. Broken Promises - Jonathan Richman 14. Powder Keg - Bill Janovitz
| Details | | Distributor: | WEA (Distributor) | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes A portion of the proceeds from THE INNER FLAME: THE RAINER PTACEK TRIBUTE will go to benefit Ptacek's fight against cancer. Producers include: Howe Gelb, Charlie Jones, Malcolm Burn, Victoria Williams, Vic Chesnutt. Engineers include: Craig Schumacher, Charlie Jones, Donovan Cowart. Includes liner notes by Howe Gelb. All tracks have been digitally mastered using HDCD technology. In the spirit of both SWEET RELIEF projects, THE INNER FLAME benefits a gifted cult musician plagued by illness and mounting medical bills. Blues guitarist Rainer Ptacek is the beneficiary of this combination benefit/tribute album organized by Giant Sand's Howe Gelb and Robert Plant. The eclectic array of artists on this project do a great job reinterpreting Rainer's introspective compositions, whose mood and ambiance recall Nick Cave and P.J. Harvey (whose reading of "Losin' Ground" has lots of rough, dirty edges that enhance its words of woe). Appropriately enough, Victoria Williams and Vic Chesnutt show up, both performing with their spouses, as Mark Olson helps out his wife on the Sufi/Aboriginal-tinged "Something's Gotta Be Done" and Tina Chesnutt joins her hubby for the alt-Tammy/George twang of ""Where's That At?" "Rude World" even allows Plant and Jimmy Page to dive into a combination of drum loops, swirling Wurlitzer and gnarly-sounding guitar that thoroughly updates the blues. THE INNER FLAME is a bright introduction to a talented songwriter.
Industry Reviews ...[Ptacek is] a canny writer of brooding, late-night tunes that ponder human fallibility with wry bemusement....THE INNER FLAME offers tantalizing glimpses of Rainer Ptacek... Musician (10/01/1997)
...A stellar guest list...pays respect to the songs and spirit of the man. Ptacek greases up the tracks with his eloquent bottleneck guitar, a unique sound suggesting Delta music gone to the hinterlands and back. - Rating: A- Entertainment Weekly (07/11/1997)
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