''Back Home'' is the seventeenth solo studio album by Eric Clapton. It was released 29 August 2005 internationally and a day later in the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

It is his first album containing new, original material since '' Reptile'' (2001), as the previous release '' Me and Mr. Johnson'' is an album of song covers of

Robert Johnson Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generati ...

. "Say What You Will" is a song that Clapton offered to the Japanese musical group

SMAP SMAP was a Japanese boy band, composed of Masahiro Nakai, Takuya Kimura, Goro Inagaki, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, and Shingo Katori. The group was created in 1988 by music producer Johnny Kitagawa, founder of Johnny & Associates, originally as a six- ...

Critical reception

''Back Home'' was met with "mixed or average" reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

score of 52 based on 10 reviews.

Track listing

# "So Tired" ( Eric Clapton,

Simon Climie Simon Climie (born 7 April 1957) is an English songwriter/producer and the former lead singer of the UK duo Climie Fisher. Biography Climie was born in London. Beginning his career primarily as a songwriter/session musician, Climie found him ...

) – 4:47 # "Say What You Will" (Clapton, Climie) – 4:35 # "I'm Going Left" ( Stevie Wonder,

Syreeta Wright Syreeta Wright (February 28, 1946 – July 6, 2004), who recorded professionally under the single name Syreeta, was an American singer-songwriter, best known for her music during the early 1970s through the early 1980s. Wright's career heights we ...

) – 4:03 # "Love Don't Love Nobody" (Joseph Jefferson, Charles Simmons) – 7:13 # "Revolution" (Clapton, Climie) – 5:00 # " Love Comes to Everyone" ( George Harrison) – 4:35 # "Lost and Found" (

Doyle Bramhall II Doyle Bramhall II (born December 24, 1968) is an American guitarist, producer and songwriter best known for his work with Eric Clapton and Roger Waters. He is the son of the songwriter and drummer Doyle Bramhall. Early life Bramhall was born i ...

, Jeremy Stacey) – 5:21 # "Piece of My Heart" (Bramhall II,

Susannah Melvoin Susannah Melvoin (born January 26, 1964) is an American vocalist and songwriter. Melvoin is best known for her association with Prince in the mid-1980s. Melvoin comes from a musical family and is the twin sister of musician Wendy Melvoin, sister ...

, Mike Elizondo) – 4:22 # "One Day" (

Vince Gill Vincent Grant Gill (born April 12, 1957) is an American country music singer, songwriter and musician. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman of the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s and as a solo artist ...

, Beverly Darnall) – 5:20 # "One Track Mind" (Clapton, Climie) – 5:04 # "Run Home to Me" (Clapton, Climie) – 6:18 # "Back Home" (Clapton) – 3:33

DualDisc version

The special edition

DualDisc The DualDisc is a type of double-sided optical disc product developed by a group of record companies including Michael Jackson, MJJ Productions Inc., EMI, EMI Music, Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, ...

format of the album features the whole album in surround sound, an interview with Clapton, and five selections from the album played live in the studio. This special package also featured four exclusive guitar picks which display "Back Home" and Clapton's signature on them. The picks came in violet, blue, red and grey.

Personnel

* Eric Clapton – lead vocals, guitar *

– guitar *

Andy Fairweather-Low Andrew Fairweather Low (born 2 August 1948) is a Welsh guitarist and singer. He was a founding member and lead singer of 1960s pop band Amen Corner, and in recent years has toured extensively with Roger Waters, Eric Clapton and Bill Wyman' ...

– baritone guitar *

– guitar * John Mayer – guitar * Robert Randolph – pedal steel guitar *

– keyboards, programming * Toby Baker – keyboards * Billy Preston – keyboards, acoustic piano, Hammond organ *

Chris Stainton Christopher Robert "Chris" Stainton (born 22 March 1944) is an English session musician, keyboard player, bassist and songwriter, who first gained recognition with Joe Cocker in the late 1960s. In addition to his collaboration with Cocker, St ...

– keyboards * Steve Winwood – keyboards * Nathan East – bass guitar * Paul Fakhourie – bass guitar *

Pino Palladino Giuseppe Henry "Pino" Palladino (born 17 October 1957) is a Welsh musician, songwriter, and record producer. A prolific session bassist, he has played bass for acts such as The Who, the John Mayer Trio, Nine Inch Nails, Gary Numan, Jeff Beck ...

– bass guitar *

Steve Gadd Stephen Kendall Gadd (born April 9, 1945) is an American drummer, percussionist, and session musician. Gadd is one of the best-known and highly regarded session and studio drummers in the industry, recognized by his induction into the '' Modern ...

– drums *

Abe Laboriel Jr. Abraham Laboriel Jr. (born March 23, 1971) is an American session drummer. He is the son of Mexican bass guitarist Abraham Laboriel, nephew of Mexican rocker Johnny Laboriel, and brother of record producer, songwriter, and film composer Mateo ...

– drums * Nicky Shaw – programming, percussion *

Kick Horns Kick Horns are a UK horn section based in London. They have worked prolifically as session musicians with a wide variety of performers, and have also recorded as an ensemble. The Kick Horns were established in the 1980s by Simon C. Clarke and Ti ...

– brass * Gavyn Wright – violin * Isobel Griffiths – strings *

Nick Ingman Nicholas Ingman (born 29 April 1948) is an English arranger, composer and conductor in the commercial music field. His collaborators include Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Björk, and the British X-factor. Born and educated in London, Ingman moved ...

– strings * Michelle John – backing vocals * Sharon White – backing vocals * Lawrence Johnson – backing vocals

Production

* Eric Clapton – producer, cover design concept, liner notes * Simon Climie – producer, Pro Tools engineer * Alan Douglas – recording engineer * Bea Henkel – second assistant engineer * George Renwick – assistant engineer * Phillippe Rose – assistant engineer * Mick Guzauski – mix engineer * Tom Bender – mix assistant * Joel Evendeen – assistant Pro Tools * Jonathan Shakhovskoy – assistant Pro Tools * Bob Ludwig – mastering at Gateway Mastering (Portland, ME). * Lee Dickson – guitar technician * Debbie Johnson – session coordinator (Los Angeles). * Bushbranch – management * Catherine Roylance – art direction and design * Paul Higgens – illustration * Chris Sykes – main photography * Allan Titmuss – photography * Jill Furmanovsky – photography * Dunlop Management, Inc. – pick pack concept

Awards

Alan Douglas and Mick Guzauski (engineer) won the 2006

Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical The Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical has been awarded since 1959. The award had several minor name changes: * In 1959, the award was known as Best Engineered Record – Non-Classical * In 1960, it was awarded as Best Engineeri ...

for the album.

George Harrison tribute

''Back Home'' was Clapton's first studio album released after the death of his close friend George Harrison in November 2001. Clapton covered Harrison's song " Love Comes to Everyone" from his 1979 self-titled album as tribute. Clapton had played the guitar introduction on the original version. In Japan during the tour of George Harrison with Eric Clapton and his band, the song was played but only once, the first night (1 December 1991, Yokohama Arena).

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control Eric Clapton albums 2005 albums Reprise Records albums Albums produced by Simon Climie Albums recorded at Olympic Sound Studios Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical