Ok, time to share my thoughts and vote for my favorites. In reading through everyone's posts, I think I may be in the minority with some of my selections.
My favorites are Another Kind Of Love, Around The Bend, Black Night, Jelly Roll, Richmond and India.
Sloe Gin and Dirt In My Pocket are sort of in the middle for me.
Ball Peen Hammer, Seagull and One of These Days are my least favorite.
Now before you squint your eyes and share your head, let me explain myself.
I am drawn to what are my favorites on the CD largely due to the sound of the songs/recordings. Another Kind Of Love, Around The Bend, Black Night, Jelly Roll, Richmond and India (to me) have more depth, texture, presence and edge than the other songs. They feel more 3-dimensional. That doesn't make them better, I just prefer the sound and mix of these songs. The guitar is clearer and has a crisper edge. They are more "Open" and inviting.
In Ball Peen Hammer and One Of These Days - while great songs - I get this sense of too much balance. There's not as many places for me to get into the music. What I mean by "get into" is crawl inside and integrate myself with the music. There isn't many openings or doorways to let me enter, I sense a wall where everything is full and these doors are closed. They are smooth, full, and balanced, and in someways (to me) that tends to hold me at arm's length. The guitar often sounds as if the initial "attack" of pick-striking-string sound has been softened or rounded off somehow in the engineering process of the recording. That is effective in forcing the listener to focus on the song as a whole as opposed to the just guitar parts, but I think that could have been accomplished without the loss of that edge?
My middle songs, Dirt in My Pocket and Sloe Gin still feature some, but less of, that guitar-sound-softening and edge smoothing. They have more depth and texture and I find them more welcoming. They are great performances and recordings. I love Sloe Gin and Joe's interpretation of it, but find that I enjoyed the sound and feel of the live Sloe Gin video here on the website than I do the studio version. It lives and breathes more.
India is a great tune. I hear more and more Eastern influence creeping into Joe's music. I don't know how many of you are familiar with Harry Manx. One of the faithful here (I apologize that I don't remember who) send me an amazing Harry Manx "Mix" CD that was a mix of Blues and Eastern music. They go very well together.
So to wrap this up, I really like the whole Sloe Gin CD. Really I do - and I like it a lot. All the songs are great, but my favorites are my favorites because of how they sound.
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