Precious Little
Jeremy Spencer was part of the creative heart of the original, pre-Buckingham/Nicks Fleetwood Mac--a talented songwriter and slide guitar foil to the estimable Peter Green, blessed with the sweet, high voice of a teen idol. Thirty-five years after his departure from the band to find God, and twenty-seven since his last solo recording, Spencer still has that angelic voice and a touch on slide guitar that makesPrecious Littlethe comeback blues album of 2006. A few songs do misfire. "Bitter Lemon" has a clichéd premise, but Spencer's buttery ease on the slide resonator is spellbinding. And "Psychic Waste," which lays humanity's sorry state at the feet of the entertainment industry, is flatly delusional. Yet his "Trouble and Woe" is remarkable: a deep song about wanting and loneliness with twined guitar and harmonica melodies that moan out the tune's sad emotional core. Elmore James's "It Hurts Me Too" and "Bleeding Heart" shimmer with authenticity as Spencer slows them down to let his unhurried, dark-toned slide take command. And the title track, which recalls Mark Knopfler's post-Dire Straits work with an arrangement built around gentle electric guitar fingerpicking, is a song of faith and pilgrimage befitting the former rock star's hard-won spiritual orientation.--Ted DrozdowskiJeremy Spencer with Fleetwood MacPeter Green's Fleetwood MacThen Play OnKiln House