Chris Cornell at Montreux Jazz Festival in 2005 (Photo by Simon Jacquier)

Chris Cornell, frontman of former bands Soundgarden and Audioslave, is now on a solo career and working on a record called Scream with the famous hip hop producer Timbaland. Four singles have already been released off the album. The change of style hasn’t been taken well at all by his long- time fans; many think the upcoming album is a disgrace to his former bands. Chris Cornell over drum machine beats is something that I haven’t either quite digested yet. The only one that I like out of the new songs I’ve heard is Two Drink Minimum.

Chris Cornell’s recent direction reminds me of Dave Matthews Band teaming up with hip hop producer Mark Batson and recording the album Stand Up. They didn’t go as far as to completely change their style, but enough to upset much of the fanbase. Things like replacing one of the best drummers in the world with a drum machine didn’t make the fans too happy. However, some of the Stand Up songs have developed into awesome live songs. I’m willing to give Chris’ new album a similar chance once he gets on tour to promote it. He is a great live artist after all.

This week’s song is one of the good old ones. Call Me a Dog is a Temple of the Dog song from their self-titled album, released in 1991. Temple of the Dog was a collaboration between Chris and the members of Pearl Jam in early ’90s when Soundgarden hadn’t had their breakthrough yet and Pearl Jam was just starting out. The song has become a real fan favorite among Chris fans, one that people want to hear at his shows. And sometimes he plays it.

This is an acoustic version Chris played at an unplugged solo show in Stockholm in 2006. The bootleg of the show called “Unplugged In Sweden” has been a pretty popular one.