JJ Cale was one of American music’s best-kept secret. The singer and guitarist notched up a few hits of his own, including 1971’s Crazy Mama and the following year’s After Midnight, but his relatively low-profile was in inverse proportion to the influence he had – the likes of Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler have called him a huge inspiration. Cale died in 2013, but Classic Rock say down with him four years earlier, around the time of 2009’s Roll On album, to look back on a quietly influential career.
