Jack Bruce Inspired by Younger Artists

Cream icon Jack Bruce says the inspiration for his latest solo album came from a Seattle post-doom band formed in 1990.

And while he’s not turning his back on his formative years, he wouldn’t have made Silver Rails without having heard The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull, a 2008 record by Earth.

Bruce tells the Great Falls Tribune: “I’ve been fortunate to be around some great people who taught me about the blues. I met people like Phil Davis and Eric Clapton – Eric’s not just a great player, he’s also a great musicologist. My first drummed was Charlie Watts.

“The blues is part of me; it’s something you can take anywhere in the world.”

But the 70-year-old continues: “The motivation for the whole album came when one of my sons played me an album by Earth. That pretty much tilted me in this direction.

“I had no real plans to to make a studio album. It gets harder and harder these days. But I just started writing and the songs came so easily.”

Earth say they started out as pioneering “drone doom” but developed into a trio performing music they describe as “slow-paced and lengthy, featuring strong elements of country music and jazz.”

Reflecting on the raucous but brief history of Cream, Bruce says: “It was honest almost to a fault. That’s what we were trying to do. I think that’s why the band didn’t last long – because then we would have lost that honesty.”

Silver Rails was released last week via Cherry Red Records.