Things to do: Listen to “Good Intentions Gone Bad” by Chris Cain

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What a pity for poor Chris Cain. The blues singer/guitarist just wants to make his wife happy. But he keeps messing it up.

Sure, she told him to be home by 11 p.m., but he didn’t show up until an hour and a half later. He tried to smooth things over by bringing her a pizza – but when he came in, he found that she had prepared a now cold romantic candlelight dinner.

Then he tried to throw her a surprise party – but ended up inviting her sister, who she detests. Finally, he bought her shorts and estimated her size. But when she tried to put them on, they were too big. As in Away too big. “How big do you think my butt really is Is?” she hisses at him.

At least, these are the difficulties that befall the narrator of the song “Good Intentions” from Cain’s new album. Good intentions are destroyed (Alligator).

In reality, Chris Cain couldn’t seem happier with his professional and personal life, despite being dealt an unexpected but not unwelcome blow that day. He is desperately trying to book a flight to Romania to play a one-off last-minute stand-in gig before heading to Italy for a series of concerts at the end of July.
“Sometimes these things just happen. And when you’re free, you do the show. And it’s an opportunity to play for people you didn’t know before!” Cain laughs on the phone. “And my best time abroad was in Italy.”

He remembers being at a restaurant and noticing a group of Italians talking about him before waving him over. “They didn’t speak English, I didn’t speak Italian, and we ended up hanging out together for a week before I did the concert. It was great!”

In 2021, Cain told the Houston Press that the songs on his previous album, Raisincain, were “the best melodies” he had ever written.

And with the material on Good intentions are destroyed Does he perhaps need to revise this statement, ranging from jump blues (“Too Little Too Late”, “Still Drinking Straight Tequila”) to blues rock (“Fear is My New Roommate”, “Time to Cry”, “TGIF”), shuffle (“Had About All I Can Take”), uptempo (“TGIF”, “Thankful”) and slow songs (“Waiting for the Sun to Rise”, “Bad Dream”)?
“You know, I felt the same way now as I did when I recorded the last record. I’m playing the guitar as well as I can. I did everything in my power to make what I did sound good,” he says. “And I’m glad you dug It!”

He said the return of Kid Andersen as producer made it “easy.” Although Andersen’s “real job” is as a guitarist with his Alligator labelmates Rick Estrin and the Nightcats, he has made more than his own name as a producer and musician on other people’s records. He oversees everything from his Greaseland, USA studio in San Jose, California, which also happens to be Chris Cain’s hometown.

In fact, Cain speaks more about his high praise for Andersen than about his own work on Good intentions turn into something bad.

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Chris Cain with Melba, his beloved guitar.

Photo by Laura Carbone

“He is simply fantastic. Kid doesn’t just use a template for every band he (produces). He figures out what you’re trying to do and then helps you do it. He has a gift. And he’s already an insanely talented musician,” Cain says.

“Everyone goes into his studio because you can capture a mood on the record, a mood on the damn thing. That’s what he can do. immediately. Some guys take two days to get a drum sound right. This kid does it in an instant. And it’s a joyful and relaxing experience to get it on that damn piece of plastic. It’s a gift, man. He’s a beautiful guy.”

Cain adds that the main way he knows when he’s playing well is by looking at Andersen’s face during recording to see if he’s got it or not.

Another of Andersen’s achievements is that he convinced him to record an extremely personal song for the album for posterity.

“Blues for My Dad” is a tribute to Cain’s late father, who loved blues and R&B and not only encouraged his young son’s interest in music, but also took him to many shows (often sneaking backstage with him, with his father’s fancy suit seemingly granting him magical Jedi powers) and gave him his first guitar.

As Cain tells it, he had brought some recordings to Andersen to choose material for the record. One recording that wasn’t even considered was “Blues for My Dad.” Cain had recorded a simple acoustic recording for fun nearly a quarter of a century ago that was definitely not intended for this project. But Andersen heard it, loved it, and pushed hard for it to be included.

“He said he played it for Rick Estrin and Rick was there tears! He finished me off and we recorded it. It wasn’t even complete!” says Cain, before recalling shows from decades ago. “Every place my dad ever took me to hear music changed my life. It was etched into my soul. He loved that stuff.”
One of his favorite father-son experiences was when he was told to put on a suit, but not where they were going. The pair ended up at a James Brown show where “the walls were sweating.” And young Cain vividly remembers James Brown coming out toward the end of the concert, dancing frenetically and carrying a suitcase as if he had just hatching to go to the next town.

On the production side, Cain credits arranger and trombonist Mike Rinta for the prominent use of horns on the record, even though Cain had not thought of them when writing the songs.

“When he wrote the arrangements, his mother was dying in the hospital. And he worked with ass of them. I cried when I heard it. The melodies immediately caught my eye.”

Good intentions are destroyed is only Cain’s second album for the renowned Chicago label Alligator Records, although his debut album on the first of a series of labels over the years was released in 1987.

And although it seems like Alligator and Cain have always been a perfect match, it turns out that the musician’s efforts to become one of their artists at the time were met with rejection.
Cain says he sent Alligator founder Bruce Iglauer a demo of his early songs “Late Night City Blues” and “Wake Up and Smell the Coffee.” Iglauer responded that his singing sounded too “artificial” and that he was trying to “sound black.” What the label head may not have known is that Cain himself is biracial: He has a black father and a white mother.

Cain vowed to pin the letter to his wall as motivation. He later met Iglauer while playing at Buddy Guy’s blues club, and later at the Chicago Blues Festival, where Iglauer approached him.

“He comes up to me and the first thing he says to me is, ‘I know we got off on the wrong foot, but I really like what you’re doing.’ And I told him I was a smartass back then. We ended up talking for two and a half hours and getting on really well.”

In closing, I would like to say that in this interview and also the last time we spoke to him, Chris Cain expresses one thing: gratitude, appreciation and recognition for his current career and for the people who have helped him along the way.

“And I really appreciate You!” he says. “I was very lucky. And I don’t take that for granted.”

For more information about Chris Cain, visit ChrisCainMusic.com