Description

20th anniversary edition on flaming vinyl with printed innersleeves

The Inner Flame is a wonderful collection of Rainer’s songs, and features Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, Emmylou Harris, PJ Harvey, the supremely gifted Chuck Prophet, Lucinda Williams, Vic Chestnutt, Jonathan Richman and others. his guitar playing, song writing gentle man left a legacy of quality music for the world to discover and celebrate. Check out any of his albums and go forward with the next and the next. You will be rewarded. This tribute has mucho famous people performing and every song is a gem, but the masterpiece is the title cut w/ Rainer performing with Giant Sand (Howe Gelb). It’s right up there with The Long Road. When Howe Gelb first prepared this compilation it was in 1996 and his bandmate and close friend Rainer Ptacek had been diagnosed with brain cancer. In his goal to raise money for the health costs to cover his the chemo and radiation treatments, Gelb decided to put this compilation together. Rainer lost that battle and afterwards, Gelb created a series of his saddest personal albums (witness The Hisser). Ten years later, Gelb expanded the list of artists involved, and on the 20th anniversary of Ptacek’s death, here comes the reissue of that expanded edition of Inner Flame. Just taking a glance at the list of artists involves, shows the lengths Gelb went through for his friend. Ptacek obviously meant a lot to him personally, but also as a talented musician, as evidenced in his slide and dobro playing on Giant Sand albums, the only Das Combo album and five solo albums, two of which were tho only ones issued while he was among us. In a touching aside, Gelb recounts how he heartbreakingly watched his friend Ptacek suffer through his illness, yet still find the strength and determination to re-learn to play the guitar after his treatments. “Inner Flame” the title song, is the one Ptacek actually composed after he re-learned to play, and Gelb’s version incorporates both Ptacek’s voice and guitar. If you missed this one first time around, here’s your chance to get a true tribute album done in a way tribute albums should be.

Track list:
1. Giant Sand And Rainer -The Inner Flame
2. Lucinda Williams -The Farm
3. Robert Plant And Jimmy Page -Rude World
4. Emmylou Harris -The Good Book
5. John Wesley Harding -Story Teller
6. Evan Dando -Rudy With A Flashlight
7. Victoria Williams And Mark Olson -Something’s Gotta Be Done
8. Grandaddy -Junkpile
9. PJ Harvey And John Parish And Eric Drew Feldman -Losin Ground
10. Chuck Prophet -Limit To It
11. Vic Chesnutt And Tina Chesnutt -Where’s That At?
12. Madeleine Peyroux -Life Is Fine
13. Robert Plant And Rainer -21 Years
14. Chris Whitley -Powder Keg
15. Jonathan Richman -Broken Promises
16. Kris McKay -One Man Crusade
17. Howe Gelb And Sno Angel -Thats How Things Get Done
18. Rainer And Joey Burns And John Convertino -Be Prepared