The least Clapton-esque Clapton-album....

If you were to listen to the first two songs on this album, and then give up and put it away, I wouldn't blame you.

"Beautiful Thing" isn't a bad song, excactly, but it is VERY different from the pop-rock style that was Eric Clapton in the mid-seventies, and was in fact written by Richard Manuel and Rick Danko of the Band.
"Carnival", a Clapton original (!), is decidedly weird. I don't even know what to call it...the backup singers sound like they're purposely trying to pronounce "Carnival" with a Spanish accent, and the arrangement is latin-tinged as well. Whatever it is supposed to be, it's not succesful.

But then comes Bob Dylan's "Sign Language", which is excellent, and the obligatory blues, in this case "County Jail Blues", after which Clapton duets with the Band's bassist Rick Danko on Danko's own "All Our Past Times".

Another Clapton original, "Hello Old Friend", follows. It is much more akin to the kind of music he made on his other 70s albums, and the song provided him with his first top 40-hit in two years.
"Double Trouble" is a cover of the Otis Rush-tune that gave Stevie Ray Vaughan's band their name, and it's a little too low-key for my taste (a bit like when Clapton covers Elmore James...he can't pull that off, either).

Yvonne Elliman, Clapton's long-time backup singer (and the original Mary Magdalene in "Jesus Christ Superstar"), takes the lead vocal on the grand, almost spiritual "Innocent Times", after which the album winds down with two less than memorable tunes, "Hungry" and "Black Summer Night", and the CD reissue includes a so-so cover of Little Walther Jacobs' "Last Night".

All in all, "No Reason To Cry" is rather atypical Eric Clapton album. I really like The Band, but the fact that they are associated with this album doesn't make it another "Music From Big Pink", and it is not one of Clapton's best, mainly because the material is spotty. These aren't three huge stars, but it has its moments.

THE MUSIC TRIES TO AROUSE, BUT GOES BLAH... TOO MANY DRINKS

I'm a git player over 35 years and love EC. This release on his comeback trail in '76 is not much to get happy about. Reports circulated at the time of these recording sessions had found EC drinking very hard and surrounded by the same type of musicans involved. Ex Herion addicts usually go to Alcohol to relieve the JUNK pain from Herion. It is no reason that this release fell on deaf ears when first issued. EC's playing is stiff and mediocre. Even the bonus track added on the CD "LAST NIGHT" does not leave you filled or do any justice. He is stiff on all his git work on this album. A shame. Maybe I'm just to critical, but others felt the same way. judging by the cover of EC in a bar with bottles of liquor in front of him answers these downer gaps.

Worth Every Penny!

While many reviewers and fans neglect the albums between "461 Ocean Boulevard" and "Slowhand," 1975's "There's One in Every Crowd" and 1976's "No Reason to Cry" easily equal the quality of the former masterpieces. No major radio singles, but plenty of mellow blues, funky riffs, moving ballads, and tasteful musicianship. And "Hello Old Friend" is a little slice of 70s country-rock heaven. "No Reason to Cry" belongs in best-of lists, not bargain bins!