Dream Factor

1	Paradise 3:42
2	Water from a Stone 3:47
3	Trust Somebody 5:00
4	Listen to the Wind 5:09
5	Outside Instrumental 6:23
6	By Your Side 6:02
7	Daddy's Lil' Girl 4:52
8	Weight of Sin 4:59
9	Who Are You 3:39
10	Dead Letter Box 5:16
11	Sweden 5:50

Barnes & Noble

Bass player extraordinaire Jack Casady has added his uniquely fat tone and endlessly inventive technique to dozens of remarkable and influential recordings over the last 40 years, first with San Francisco's psychedelic bellwether, Jefferson Airplane, and later as a member of blues band Hot Tuna, in both their acoustic and electric incarnations. Dream Factor is the first release under his own name. Not a solo album in the traditional sense -- the famously reticent Casady is neither singer nor lyricist and only reluctantly steps into the spotlight -- Dream Factor employs a battery of musicians, songwriters, and vocalists to flesh out and add texture to this collection of original country, rock, and blues tunes. Casady pulls out all the stops on "Outside," a rollicking stew of stuttering time changes, false endings, and groaning feedback, set against Warren Haynes's feathery lead guitar. Other highlights include the down-and-dirty, swamp-funk blues "Daddy's Lil' Girl," featuring Ivan Neville on vocals, the hard rocking "Paradise," with vocal and slippery slide guitar by Little Feat's Paul Barrere, and "Sweden," an unsettling tale of Scandinavian ennui that includes Fee Waybill of the Tubes on vocals and a slashing guitar duel between Haynes and Casady's longtime Airplane/Tuna compadre, Jorma Kaukonen. While one might have wished for a more free-form or experimental context to showcase Casady's enormous instrumental talents, this long-awaited solo foray contains an hour's worth of the dazzling musicianship that has made this beloved Rock and Roll Hall of Famer an icon to critics as well as to his multi-generational fans. David Cohen

All Music Guide

Jack Casady first came to fame as an original member of the Jefferson Airplane and later, Hot Tuna. The first solo album (at age 59) from this well-traveled and prolific bassist, Dream Factor, is a mixed affair. Unlike most rock bass-playing frontmen, Casady does not sing, so his contributions to his debut are relegated to the occasional bass solo, and as co-writer of nearly all the tracks. His bass playing is more innovative and inspirational than his songwriting, which results in a passable Southern rock, folk, and blues album. Casady calls in friends from Gov't Mule (drummer Matt Abts and guitarist Warren Haynes), along with Little Feat guitarist Paul Barrére, Ivan Neville, and the Tubes' Fee Waybill, among others, to help with vocals, and all do an admirable job, but ultimately, the album rests on the strength of its songs, most of which are pleasant, vaguely West Coast folk-pop ballads. When Casady steps out on the burning instrumental jazz-rock fusion "Outside" (which also features Haynes), and again in the middle section of the folksy "Weight of Sin," you get a true sense of his unique bass-playing talents. Hal Horowitz