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The Neville Brothers – Yellow Moon
Label: A&M Records – 395 240-1
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: Greece
Released: 1989
Genre: Jazz Rock
Style: Afro-Cuban Jazz, Folk Rock, Pop Rock
A1 My Blood
Percussion – Kenyatta Simon, Kufaru Mouton
Written-By – C. Moore*, C. Neville*, D. Johnson*, G. Neville*, W. Green*
4:11
A2 Yellow Moon
Written-By – A. Neville*, J. Neville*
4:04
A3 Fire And Brimstone
Written-By – L. Wray*
3:57
A4 A Change Is Gonna Come
Vocals [Spiritual] – Brian Eno
Written-By – S. Cooke*
3:43
A5 Sister Rosa
Keyboards – Aashid Himmons*, Terry Manual
Written-By – C. Moore*, C. Neville*, C. Neville Jr.*, D. Johnson*, J. Neville*, L. Neville*
3:29
A6 With God On Our Side
Written-By – B. Dylan*
6:37
B1 Wake Up
Written-By – B. Stoltz*, C. Neville*, A. Hall*, W. Green*
3:21
B2 Voo Doo
Written-By – A. Neville*, A. Neville*, B. Stoltz*, C. Neville*, C. Neville*, D. Johnson*, W. Green*
4:26
B3 The Ballad Of Hollis Brown
Written-By – B. Dylan*
5:45
B4 Will The Circle Be Unbroken
Written-By – A.P. Carter*
5:16
B5 Healing Chant
Written-By – A. Neville*, A. Neville*, B. Stoltz*, C. Neville*, C. Neville*, A. Hall*, W. Green*
4:34
B6 Wild Injuns
Written-By – A. Neville*, A. Neville*, B. Stoltz*, C. Neville*, C. Neville*, A. Hall*, W. Green*
3:17
Genre New Orleans R&B, soul, funk
Length 52:40
Manufactured By – G.P.I. S.A.
Distributed By – Polygram
Art Direction – Jeff Gold
Bass, Percussion [X-tra], Backing Vocals – Tony Hall
Drums [Drum Kit, Chinese Drum] – Willie Green
Guitar, Percussion [X-tra], Backing Vocals – Brian Stoltz
Horns [Group Horns] – The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Keyboards [Additional], Effects [Sound Effects] – Brian Eno
Mastered By – George Horn
Saxophone, Percussion, Backing Vocals – Charles Neville
Vocals, Drums [Hand Drums], Percussion – Cyril Neville
Vocals, Keyboards – Art Neville
Vocals, Keyboards [X-tra], Percussion – Aaron Neville
℗ 1989 POLYGRAM
Made in Greece.
“This music is dedicated to sufferers around the world and, most of all, to Jah God, the great spirit, the source of all our inspirations. May his love heal the world soon.”
One Heart, The Neville Brothers
℗ 1989 A&M Records, Inc. Los Angeles
© 1989 A&M Records, Inc. Los Angeles
Barcode (Text): 0 82839 52401 8
Matrix / Runout (A-Side runout stamp): AM395240A CCD410 2990
Matrix / Runout (B-Side runout stamp): AM395240B CCD410 2990
Rights Society: AEPI
Label Code: LC 0485
Price Code: POL 281
Yellow Moon is an album by the Neville Brothers, released in 1989. The track “Healing Chant” won best pop instrumental performance at the 32nd (1989) Grammy Awards.
The album peaked at No. 66 on the Billboard 200.
Production
Yellow Moon was produced by Daniel Lanois.[11] It was recorded in New Orleans, in a vacated apartment.
Critical reception
Robert Christgau wrote: “Whether isolating rhythm-makers, adding electronic atmosphere, or recontextualizing ‘natural’-seeming instrumental effects … Lanois isn’t afraid to go for drama, and while drama does have a way of palling eventually, the songs are worth the risk.” Spin thought that “instead of running from the bayou backbeat … the Nevilles let the funky rhythms flow where they may.” USA Today opined that “cynics will say that Lanois has thrown out the baby with the bathwater, but that ignores the fact that ‘My Blood’ and ‘Wild Injun’ rock with subtlety, and that Yellow Moon is an adventurous stretch for a band that can boogie in its sleep.”
Track listing
“My Blood” (Daryl Johnson, Cyril Neville, Willie Green, Charles Moore) – 4:11
“Yellow Moon” (Aaron Neville) – 4:04
“Fire and Brimstone” (Link Wray) – 3:57
“A Change Is Gonna Come” (Sam Cooke) – 3:43
“Sister Rosa” (Daryl Johnson, Cyril Neville, Charles Moore) – 3:29
“With God on Our Side” (Bob Dylan) – 6:37
“Wake Up” (Cyril Neville, Brian Stoltz, Willie Green) – 3:21
“Voodoo” (Aaron Neville, Daryl Johnson, Cyril Neville, Brian Stoltz, Willie Green) – 4:26
“The Ballad of Hollis Brown” (Bob Dylan) – 5:45
“Will the Circle Be Unbroken” (A. P. Carter) – 5:16
“Healing Chant” (Aaron Neville, Tony Hall, Cyril Neville, Brian Stoltz, Willie Green) – 4:34
“Wild Injuns” (Aaron Neville, Tony Hall, Cyril Neville, Brian Stoltz, Willie Green) – 3:17
Genre New Orleans R&B, soul, funk
Length 52:40
Personnel
Aaron Neville – vocals, percussion, additional keyboards
Art Neville – vocals, keyboards
Charles Neville – saxophones, backing vocals, percussion
Cyril Neville – vocals, hand drums, percussion
Brian Stoltz – guitar, backing vocals, additional percussion
Tony Hall – bass, backing vocals, additional percussion
Willie Green – drums, Chinese drum
Brian Eno – keyboards, sound effects, vocals on “A Change Is Gonna Come”
Daniel Lanois – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Malcolm Burn – keyboards, guitar
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band – horns
Eric Kolb – keyboard programming
Kenyatta Simon and Kufaru Mouton – percussion on “My Blood”
Aashid Himmons and Terry Manual – keyboards on “Sister Rosa”
The boisterous R&B; singer Ernie K-Doe once bragged, “I’m not certain, but I’m almost positive that all music came from New Orleans.” Although K-Doe was obviously overstating the case, no other American city has had a hand in shaping as many popular musical styles as New Orleans. Curiously, the city hasn’t been a force in the record industry since the early Sixties, when it dominated the charts. But with three New Orleans groups currently enjoying new releases, and an ever-increasing amount of national attention being focused on the Crescent City sound, there are indications that the sleeping giant may soon reawaken.
A cornerstone of the Crescent City music community for a dozen years, the Neville Brothers have long since been the consensus choice as potential superstars. They certainly have the talent, but so far that status has eluded the four brothers; their previous records – six in all, counting live and historical anthologies – haven’t caught on beyond their cult following.
The Nevilles’ latest, Yellow Moon, should boost the brothers’ stock considerably, because it’s the first studio album that really captures the sound and spirit they portray onstage. Producer Daniel Lanois – who has previously worked with U2 and Peter Gabriel – wisely avoids dressing up the Nevilles’ funky rhythms, a mistake their previous producers made too often. But while this is certainly the best studio album the Nevilles have yet recorded, it still falls short of being a masterpiece. One can’t help but feel that at times the brothers get carried away with making cultural and political statements and forget that their primary job is to make music.
When the Nevilles do concentrate on making music, however, they’ll have you on your feet in no time. Case in point: the hottest tracks on the album, “Wild Indians” and “Fire and Brimstone,” which couple the four brothers with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. A brilliant musical collaboration, this is the modern New Orleans sound at its most impressive.
The title track of Yellow Moon serves as the perfect showcase for the great Aaron Neville, who proves he may be the best pure vocalist working today. Not only are his range, pitch and phrasing flawless, he also seems genuinely committed to the songs he sings. Unfortunately, Aaron is not always fortunate enough to get suitable material. While it’s novel to hear him on the stripped-down and bluesy version of Bob Dylan’s “Hollis Brown,” there’s really no point in hearing another version of Sam Cooke’s “Change Is Gonna Come,” even one sung by Aaron Neville.
Contrasting with the rest of the album is Cyril Neville’s “Sister Rosa,” which is set to a rap beat. A tribute to Rosa Parks, who sparked the civil-rights movement in 1955 when she refused to give up her seat to a white person on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, this track might just be palatable enough for urban black radio. Even if Yellow Moon doesn’t take the Neville Brothers to the top of the charts, it does at least capture on record some of the magic of these New Orleans giants.
Voodoo – the new album by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band – captures a different sort of magic. Once a staid, traditional style of music played by weathered old men at political rallies and shopping-mall openings, brass-band music has been radically modernized by the Dirty Dozen. (There are really only eight members; they took their name from a New Orleans social and pleasure club when the band was formed in 1978.) By employing the tuba in the same way a funky electric bass is played, and by injecting some contemporary and off-the-wall material into the traditional brass-band format, they have created an innovative and noisy brand of music. Besides their contribution to Yellow Moon, they recently helped out Elvis Costello on Spike.
No one can accuse the Dirty Dozen Brass Band of being boring or unimaginative. While there are only eight songs on the record and plenty of improvisation, the proceedings never once get long-winded or tedious. “Santa Cruz” and “Voodoo” are noteworthy because they flaunt some especially wacky horn arrangements and some dazzling solo work by various members of the band. Guests Dr. John (who sings on the Dirty Dozen’s inspired cover of “It’s All Over Now”), Branford Marsalis and Dizzy Gillespie are present on a couple of tracks, but the real stars of Voodoo are the boys in the band. One listen to Voodoo and you too will be under their spell.
Listening to the Radiators is rather like drinking Jagermeister, the most popular liqueur in New Orleans: Either you like it or you don’t; there’s no half measure. The band plays a hypnotic brand of Southern rock – they refer to it as “fishhead music” – that has more in common with Little Feat and the Grateful Dead than any New Orleans group that comes to mind. The Radiators surprised everyone in 1987 when their debut Epic release, Law of the Fish, became a college-radio favorite and rose to respectable levels on the charts.
Zigzagging Through Ghostland picks up where Law of the Fish left off, containing all of the quirky trademark rhythms the Radiators are known for. Again the band’s primary strength proves to be vocalist and keyboardist Ed Volker, who writes songs that are humorous but nonetheless poignant. This time around, however, his material is presented in a less tentative manner, one that should make AOR sit up and take notice.
Longtime Rad fans will experience a sensation of déjà vu when they first hear Zigzagging Through Ghostland, and rightly so. Three of the twelve songs date to the Radiators’ bar-band days in the late Seventies, when they put out their own records. “Red Dress” and “Hardcore” are two of these songs, and they provide some of the best moments on the album. “Confidential,” which opens the album, and “Raw Nerve” are two other strong tracks, featuring plenty of churning rhythm guitar and rim-crushing percussion. Even the sole cover on the album, a version of J.J. Jackson’s “But It’s Alright,” seems tailor-made for the Radiators’ determined musical approach. There is nothing technical, political or arty about Zigzagging Through Ghostland, but it’s further proof that New Orleans has some more musical history to make. (RS 550)
Daniel Lanois’s production is so subtle that at first this seems like a return to mighty-kootie-fiyo, but in fact it’s the modernization they’ve been chasing since the Meters were history. Whether isolating rhythm-makers, adding electronic atmosphere, or recontextualizing “natural”-seeming instrumental effects (the un-New Orleans bottleneck that grounds “The Ballad of Hollis Brown,” the Dirty Dozen horns that rescue “Wild Injuns” from generic throwaway), Lanois isn’t afraid to go for drama, and while drama does have a way of palling eventually, the songs are worth the risk. The expansive “My Blood” and the educational “Sister Rosa” are their finest millennial-political originals ever, and though “Hollis Brown,” “With God on Our Side,” “A Change Is Gonna Come,” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” may seem like an obvious bunch of covers, their total effect is audacious instead (one ’64 Dylan OK, but two?). Add Art’s singing lessons (from Aaron) and Charles’s horn lessons (from Lee Allen, say) and you have their masterpiece. Even the languours of “Healing Chant” seem apt and premeditated. A
‘Yellow Moon’ Casts the Glow of Success on Neville Brothers
BY MIKE BOEHM
JAN. 6, 1990 12 AM PT
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TIMES STAFF WRITER
For most of the 1980s, the Neville Brothers’ story was bittersweet.
The band’s obvious excellence and originality brought it deep admiration among cultists and critics. But its failure to reach a mainstream audience was always a cause for sympathy.
Stars like Linda Ronstadt, Keith Richards and Huey Lewis would sing the praises of the Nevilles, who play the Baccahanal tonight (sold out) and Sunday, and sometimes try to give them a boost with opening slots on their high-profile tours.
Music publications would hail the band for fiery, socially conscious albums and performances that embodied the uniquely vibrant soul and R&B; tradition of the Nevilles’ hometown, New Orleans. But always there would be that sad side to the tale: The Nevilles’ excellence seemed destined to remain one of pop’s proverbial best-kept secrets.
Then came 1989 and the release of “Yellow Moon,” the fifth album by the Nevilles since 1977, the year that brothers Art, Charles, Aaron and Cyril merged their previously separate musical careers to record as a family band. With all that goodwill built up from the past, and with producer Daniel Lanois lending the Nevilles’ churning funk the atmospheric cast he had previously brought to hit albums by the likes of U2 and Robbie Robertson, “Yellow Moon” became the album that broke the Neville Brothers into the mainstream.
The accolades kept coming from the cognoscenti–but there was no longer any need to temper admiration with sympathy about undeserved commercial neglect.
“It really got us exposed to a lot of people who weren’t aware of us,” saxophonist Charles Neville said over the phone from San Francisco last week as he assessed the impact of “Yellow Moon.”
“It didn’t quite get to gold (500,000 copies sold), but it got close. The last I heard, it was well over 300,000 and still selling. I think it was a combination of the album, and the publicity that went before it. Over the years, people have been hearing all these other people (like Richards and Ronstadt) talking about us. I think the combinations of all the things that went on in the ‘80s” led to the breakthrough with “Yellow Moon.” Although not a major hit by today’s industry standards, the album’s appearance on the Billboard Top 100 albums chart was still an achievement for a band that isn’t naturally attuned to ‘80s pop formulas.
According to Charles Neville, “Yellow Moon” may bring the Nevilles more good news: “The rumor we’ve heard is there’s a good chance of it being nominated for Grammys in more than one category,” he said. If so, the Nevilles would have a chance to enjoy a delicious reversal: Last year, they were the entertainment at the post-Grammy ceremony party for nominees. If the Grammy organizers have any sense at all, they will use the opportunity of a Neville Brothers nomination to have the band play on the national telecast.
Other recent developments have placed the Neville name before the public even more. The band’s rhythm section–Cyril Neville on percussion, guitarist Brian Stoltz, bassist Tony Hall and drummer Willie Green–was enlisted by producer Lanois to serve as the backing unit for Bob Dylan’s “Oh Mercy” album. And Linda Ronstadt called on Aaron Neville and his sumptuous tenor for four duets on her new, million-selling album, “Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind.” Neville receives special “featuring Aaron Neville” billing on the Ronstadt album’s cover. The Nevilles will be the opening act for Ronstadt on her 1990 tour, Charles Neville said, with Aaron Neville doing double duty in duets with Ronstadt.
According to Charles, there is no nervousness within the band over the fact that Aaron’s distinctive voice lends itself to outside projects, not to mention a solo career.
“That’s something that’s encouraged,” said Charles, who, at 51, is a year younger than the eldest Neville, keyboards player Art. “I don’t think it could hurt us at all for him to get as much notoriety as possible. (Aaron) is planning on doing a solo album. Hopefully, at some point, we’ll all be able to do that with enough recognition of the Neville Brothers name to have some instant clout behind whatever the solo project is.”
Among the outside projects is Art Neville’s recent reunion with two other original members of the Meters, bassist George Porter and guitarist Leo Nocentelli. In the ‘60s and ‘70s, the Meters brought tight New Orleans funk to mass audiences as a backup studio band for Dr. John, Paul McCartney, Robert Palmer and Labelle.
Meanwhile, Charles said, the Neville Brothers are working up songs for a follow-up to “Yellow Moon.” The group will record at Lanois’ studio in New Orleans, he said, but with a different producer–the idea being not to retrace the sound Lanois crafted for the Nevilles on “Yellow Moon.”
This time the band will be building on success instead of wondering whether it will ever achieve a commercial breakthrough.
Although the Nevilles often talked of the need to come up with a hit during their years of small cult awareness (their 1987 album, “Uptown,” was a blatant but failed attempt to gear songs to radio tastes), discouragement never set in, Charles said.
“Things were always at a kind of slow-but-steady pace, getting better and better.”
