Chris Rea’s musical catalogue is often filed under adult-oriented rock and soft-rock balladry, but looking through that old window misses the core of his musicianship. He was a songwriter and guitarist whose instincts are rooted in the blues, with a distinctive slide vocabulary and a knack for building songs around guitar motifs that feel as memorable as any chorus. Rea passed away on the 22 December 2025. Given his history of health issues over the last 30 years, it was wonderful to have had him for so long. It's not just with a twinge of nostagla and sadness that I remember him. As one gets older and sees ones heros put to rest, it's inevitable to think on ones own mortality. So, it's a good time to revisit his work and deep dive into the recurring guitar language that runs through some his songs from my youth that I remember vividly.
This Learning Path focuses on four songs—“Let’s Dance,” “Working on It,” “Daytona,” and “Auberge”—because they share a common theme, at least to my ears. It's a riff-driven engine (often over a simple harmonic base) in which he captures his love of a racing engine, the open road and freedom from modern life.
It is also a reminder that his “road music” was never just a soundtrack, it was part of his broader working-life his hoobies, working-class roots and lineage of a man from Middleborough with Irish and Italian parents.
