Musicians:
Robben Ford - electric & acoustic guitar, lead vocals
Roscoe Beck - electric & acoustic bass guitar, lead vocal ("Say What's on Your Mind")
Tom Brechtlein - drums, background vocal ("Busted Up")
David Grissom - rhythm guitar on tracks 1, 5, 8, 9, 10 (11 for Int'l), lead guitar on 7
Chick Corea - splings, zings and thunks on Moth to a Flame
The Big 2 Horns ("Say What's on Your Mind"):
Bob Malach - saxophone
Dan Fornero - trumpet & flugelhorn
Arranged by Roscoe Beck with
Robben Ford and The Big 2 Horns

For Robben Ford & The Blue Line second release on Stretch Records, Robben Ford reveals himself to be a budding songwriter as well as one of the great guitarists of the past decade. "I have always been a player," says the one-time guitarist for The Yellowjackets and the Miles Davis band. "I've always been coming much more from the instrument, getting my inspiration from players like John Coltrane and Miles Davis and people like that. Its pretty new to me to be concentrating on songwriting but I've really been doing it a lot over the last three years, and I think finally something original is starting to come about."

The title track of Mystic Mile is perhaps the best example of his daring new direction that Ford has taken. He attributes the inspiration for this moody composition to Bob Dylan's haunting "Man in The Long Black Coat." Another tune that shows Robben's growth as a songwriter is the gentle acoustic "Trying To Do The Right Thing," a personal statement of devotion to his wife. Ford also puts his own stamp on the confessional ballad "Moth To A Flame" and the funky wah-wah-inflicted "Busted Up," which draws heavily on vintage James Brown Grooves. "The lyrics to that song isn't exactlt T.S. Eliot," says Robben, "but the groove is there. It's funky, you know? I mean, "Cold Sweat" is not a masterpiece lyrically; its more of just a feeling. And that's exactly what we went for here."

The lone instrumental, "The Plunge." is a fretboard romp that highlights Ford's virtuosity. And he holds othing back on the hard-hitting original "He Don't Play Nothing But The Blues" or the slow grinding "Worried Life Blues'" an early '60's vehicle for B.B. King. "My songwriting is developing as time goes on," he says. "On Talk To Your Daughter (his 1988 album for Warner Bros.) I only wrote two songs. That was right around the time I started writing vocal oriented music. All my writing prior to that had been basically instrumental. It's come along to the point where on my last album (his 1992 Stretch debut, Robben Ford & The Blue Line) there were only three instrumentals. And now I am down to just one instrumental on this new album. So songwriting and lyrical content has become important to me lately."

Blue Line bassist Roscoe Beck contributes one composition, the impassioned "Say What's On You Mind" and the band kicks in one surprise with one scintillating rendition of Cream's "Politician". As Robben says, "That was something that Roscoe and Tom (Brechtlein) started playing on sound checks, so one day I just hopped in on it and if felt good. Later when we were doing the album that song came to mind. It was just before the presidential elections so it seemed somehow appropriate. So we cut it and it came out so good that we just had to get it on record."

Originally a quintet, then a quartet, The Blue Line has since been pared down to a house-rocking trio. ( The addition of Bill has brought the band up to a quartet in 1995). And Ford says it couldn't have worked without the contribution of drummer Bretchlein and bassist Beck. "Roscoe and I started playing together in 1982," says Robben. "He's the only guy I know who can do what I want and he does it quite naturally. I never even thought about using another guy. Tom came onto the band around 1986 subbing for Vinnie Colaituta. He became the regular drummer after the Talk To Your Daughter album, and within the last couple of years we just discovered something special among the three of us that we wanted to purse."

"I have a tendency to think there is all this weight on me," Robben continues. "I'm singing, I'm the only chordal instrument, I'm the only solo instrument. But I happen to have two fantastic musicians that I can rely on, so I can relax more that I think I can. It's something you have to remind yourself of. And when you do, it's just the best."

In concert. Ford is given to a lot of added support by bassist Beck, who has adapted a phenomenal two handed tapping technique that allows him to play chords and bass lines simultaneously. And Bretchlein, shifts numbly from shuffles to all-out rockers, from subtle brush work to solid funk backbeats to excruciatingly slow blues grooves.