Baja Sessions is a 1996 album by Chris Isaak, featuring largely acoustic arrangements. The album contains a large number of covers, many of which are classic songs which refer to, or are styled to suggest tropical, laid-back settings, such as the Hawaiian-tinged "Sweet Leilani" and "South of the Border (Down Mexico Way)". The calm, gentle flow of the band's work here means the new versions of older Isaak cuts like "Back On Your Side" and "Two Hearts" sound especially lovely, having a serene, relaxed sparkle to them. The cover choices are a fun range, everything from bona-fide rock & roll classics to nods to country and other sources. The old Gene Autry singing cowboy number "South of the Border (Down Mexico Way)" not only fits the theme of the album but seems tailor-made for Isaak's singing style, while Hawaiian standard "Sweet Leilani" gets the right touch of steel guitar twang to suit the song and then some. If there's a winner, though, it's the all-debts-paid cover of one of Isaak's obvious heroes -- Roy Orbison, whose majestic "Only the Lonely" gets a low-key but still appropriately dramatic revamp.

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Pretty Girls Don't Cry
2. Back On Your Side
3. Only The Lonely
4. South Of The Border (Down Mexico Way)
5. I Wonder
6. Wrong To Love You
7. Waiting For My Lucky Day
8. Yellow Bird
9. Two Hearts
10. Return To Me
11. Dancin'
12. Sweet Leilani
13. Think Of Tomorrow