The Black Crowes/The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion(1992)

Folk’s here’s Part Deux of mine and Mikey’s Double Crowes Header! Click the link below for Mikey’s slamming spin on this Classic!

REVIEW: The Black Crowes – The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion (remastered)

Don’t you just love the cover of this album? I sure as hell do! It’s basically the Crowes hanging out in a dump like setting so for all the wham bam Poison like happy 80’s bands trying to scrape by with any smudge of success in the early 90s The Black Crowes are basically about to stomp you out!

Nothing happy around these parts folks..move on but before you do. Dig into the grooves of this album! An absolute scorcher and in my mind (anyways) a 360 degree turn from the Hard Blues Stones like Rock of the debut (Shake Your Money Maker) from two years before!

Southern Harmony is an album of “We don’t give a F**K” we will do what we wanna do!” This album registers on all levels of that previous statement! No real radio tailor-made singles. No sir! Just plug-in and let it rip and through all its 10 songs 50 minutes of music. The co writes between vocalist Chris Robinson and his brother, guitarist  Rich Robinson are brilliant put together pieces of music without worrying about what would make it to the radio.

One big change was in the 6 string dept as Jeff Cease got his marching papers and in comes Marc Ford.  The rest of the Crowes still remained intact and that would be Johnny Colt(Bass),Steve Gorman(Drummer) & Eddie Harsch(Keyboards)

You could sense these guys were already graduates from the we don’t give a shit what anyone think’s thought of school. Fair enough…

Sting Me opens the proceedings and the Crowes are a flying as this is a straight ahead rocker. “If you feel a riot that don’t deny it” sings Chris and were off. Nice tidy like drumming by Gorman who as always does keeps the Crowes beat moving forward. This tune has a live like feel and even the Keyboards are mixed right. Great opener!

Ok. Remedy dropped as a single before the album landed in the shops and all I will say is “This is such a Friggin great Rock Track!” Whether from 1992 or 2017 it is amped and loaded. When i first heard this song I was blown away at the power of it. Just no fooling around B.S and Remedy was holding its own as the Seattle Grungeaholics were trying to wipe all kinds of rock from the map. Kinda like a hostile takeover but the Crowes were having none of that. Heads down in the trenches boys and Chris and Rich cook us all up a Remedy! With Gorman smashing about his symbols the guitars just lift this track right off! Still one of my all time fav-o rock tracks.

Thorn In My Pride is 6 minutes of a jam o ram workout. It’s all here. Chill vibe that ramps up with a snazzy driven keyboard line after the fuzzy distorted guitar solo. Chris battles “Devils/Angels” Hmmm is this about his brother Rich? hahaha….

Bad Luck Blue Eyes Goodbye starts off with Gorman clicking his sticks with the count in as someone chirps about “Weed” beforehand. Bad Ass Rock Hippies! This song has a different vibe. Real chill verses. The chorus wakes up a bit which features the ladies on the background vocals.  See that’s the thing I love about this album is that Crowes just jam out tunes that are pushing the envelope of doing what they wanted. Great chorus!

Sometimes Salvation. Marc Ford has the distinction of being in my all time Top 10 for the fuzzed out supersonic slip n slide distorted solo that is an absolute beast on this track. The first time I heard this tune on my first listen I went back to the solo it’s so freaking good! Sometimes Salvation has that great drum/lead vocal kick that to me along with the solo is like me scrapping around looking for a fix! A fix of Rock! I have always liked this video as  Chris just gives er in the lead vocal department especially when he’s bellowing “Sister do you wanna find me?” Deep man…

Hotel Illness has a Stones like opening featuring some cool percussion and harp to lead off the proceedings. Nice smooth vocal and I like how the Crowes mix it up between vocal/harp on the first verse and shift to vocal/guitar leads on the second verse. 

More harmonica on Black Moon Creeping. BMC is another great track as the Crowes do all the trimmings on this song. A sleazy like groove during the verse and Boom comes the chorus where it goes up one notch and thats due to Gorman and his drums!

The tour opener for the 92/93 tour that touched down in Tbay. No Speak No Slave has a real cool groove love the riffage of the guitars during the chorus. The song just ploughs forward with Colt playing his bass and just being locked and loaded with Gorman while Rich and Marc just jam all out over the map. Chris just bellows and howls and asks ‘Do you wanna be heard?’ Yes I Do! A rip snorting track that goes all bonkers at the end!

My Morning Song is another jam like workout. Tons of slide action from the guitars. No fooling around with a straight ahead rock track Crowesfried just how we likey! Chris man sounds like he’s about to go hoarse on this song and kudos to these guys for just leaving as is alone!

Time Will Tell is a Bob Marley cover that closes up shop on this album. The Black Crowes become Bob Crowes and basically keep the reggae like beat but with keeping an edge on it.

What can you say about this album?

Well…

Considering the Betty Crocker Baked Oven was on full throttle for this album these guys knew what they were doing.

To my listening ears this is a complete left turn from the debut. This album reeks of nastiness(the seedier side of life)but in a complimentary way. No radio like hits. A killer live off the floor recording  that no one back in 92 was doing or for that matter is doing now.

The vocals/musicianship the crafting of the songs by the Robinson Brothers was at an all time creative peak here.  I bought into the Crowes but after this album it was hit or miss with their stuff for my liking…

All time great here!

 

 

Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes/Live At The Greek(2000)

 

Will they or won’t they?  That is the question that is always asked about Led Zeppelin reuniting for shows or a tour since when? Pretty much a  week after Zep Drummer John Bonham passed away back in December of 1980.

Course Zep did the Live reunion album Celebration Day back in 2007 with Bonham’s son on the drums Jason. 

For me though personally If it was to happen the drum stool should be filled by Black Crowes Drummer Steve Gorman!

Let’s rewind a bit back here….

Zep Singer Robert Plant I think maybe not so much now but I recall back around 1990 or so when Robert released the great Manic Nirvana album that year. It was announced that Plant was going to be playing a bunch of Canadian Dates with Winnipeg Manitoba being one of those dates around late September or so.

To get to Winnipeg from Thunder Bay is a 8-9 hour car ride. There is a true story floating around this site that Tbone got us to Winnipeg in just over 5  hours!(True Story)…

Anyhoo….

Myself and Tbone had a decision to make as ZZ Top was in Winnipeg as well around the first part of October.  We decided to skip Plant’s show and go and see ZZ!(review of that show you can find on this site).

Our reasoning was with the massive 4 CD Zep Box set coming out before Christmas that year surely Plant/Jimmy Page/John Paul Jones would rake in a huge total dough payout and play the 50,000 seaters in 1991 right?

Wrong-o! Course it did not happen and Page got frustrated and recorded the pretty cool Coverdale/Page album which irked Plant who just kept doing his solo stuff and so it went….

Gonna happen/Not gonna….until the one-off in 2007…

Too be honest I hope it never happens now but back in the early 90’s I was all for it!

Which leads to this …

So Jimmy takes his Sunburst Gibson Les Paul and hooks up with everyone’s favourite Weed Heads Chris & Rich Robinson along with Steve-o on the Drums/Sven Pipien on Bass/Eddie Harsch (RIP) on keyboards and Audley Freed on guitar.

What you get here is Jimmy and the Crowes covering 13 Zep Tracks and 7 covers over a double disc.

This is a fantastic live album and hey great job by producer Kevin Shirley to mix the three guitars and making it sound cool and distinct!

Celebration Day opens the disc and Gorman flexes his rock muscle on those drums. Steve plays flawlessly throughout the album. Sick Again and the Lemon Song feature some real powerful smashing the skins but Gorman keeps himself in check. He’s a monster live and I can say that as when the Crowes showed up in Tbay back in 93. Gorman played the whole set on a small set of drums with his slick combed back hair,tailored suit and shades! Basically he looked like he just came out of some high-rise  Wall Street building but  keeps an ass kicking beat behind the Robinson Bro’s!

Chris vocally is on the money as well. Taking the gig seriously as well as he should as  he’s singing Plants lyrics! One of Chris’s best vocals is the classic Zep track Hey Hey What Can I Do. That is what is cool about this is at the time there was not too much official Zep Live stuff floating around(of course now there’s all those BBC Sessions and another Box set that was all live stuff). Another highlight is Custard Pie.

A ton of Zep songs are dialed in by these guys and kudos to the Crowes as their music chops are tight on this release. Page flings his brilliance with a nice added touch of the guitars from Rich and Audley never getting in the way.

Some covers as well like Shapes Of Things To Come/Shake Your Money Maker and Tbone’s favourite Sloppy Drunk are CroweFried!

Kudos to Slim Jim as he amped back up along with some Crowes and they  deliver a great live souvenir

 

Reviews On Tap!

Here’s what’s coming up…..

Cd’s Courtesy of Tbone’s Sound Emporium!

SONIC WAVES…Black Crowes/Stare It Cold (Live At The Greek 1991)

 

 

 

 

I bought this on iTunes as soon as I spotted it. Too me it seems like a bootleg and its on iTunes ? Hell has frozen over! I know there’s a lot of Crowes lovers out there but for me I really dug there first two and even though I continued to purchase their other releases (By Your Side was another fav) this early era of the band is my fav and these guys at the time of this recording  sounds like it’s at the tail end of there Moneymaker tour and by golly I think it’s safe to say they made a ton of dough by the end of 91!

The other cool thing about this release is it features Jeff Cease who was booted shortly after  the Moneymaker tour and replaced by Marc Ford. The Crowes here are on fire and yep this is from the Greek in LA but this is not the release the Crowes did with Jimmy Page a few years later.

Lets check out the Crowes as there on fire here……

The Crowes take to the stage with Shake Your Moneymaker piping thru the speakers and some dude unloads into the mic telling all of us that ‘ no gets out of this rock n roll alive” …and the band opens with,

TWICE AS HARD- Chris and Rich Robinson start the night off and there already in party mode and the band is kicking it along. Cool guitars and for me I love these kind of Crowes tunes! You know the Ol philosophy ‘don’t bore us get to the chorus ‘ this my friends is rock n roll!

THICK N THIN- Ha! I love this chainsaw buzzing tune. It’s snappy and Steve Gorman pounds the drums into the ground on this. It’s also a gas to hear just dudes doing the backing vocals this is stripped down Crowes kinda like there riding in the back of a pick up truck with rifles loaded looking for the band Poison!

STARE IT COLD- Boom….Robinson/Cease guitars along with Gormans bass drum lead off this track and Eddie Harsh makes the keys sound cool on this recording and the Crowes remind me every time I hear this what a great band they are. Of course at the end the band goes into overdrive and end the song at a 100 mph. Just how I like the rock!

SEEING THINGS- Chris tells us that this song is about assholes and you finally figuring it out in other words Seeing Things and this tune they do bring out the ladies to do the backing vocals so from here I can see the direction they are headed in. Great song performed live!

SISTER LUCK- Chris goes on about a buddy of his who’s bummed out. Chris asks why and his buddy tells him he has joined the police force! Hahaha….no more hemp for Chris’s buddy and this Song has the whole Stones vibe down. Keys and  the guitars carry this tune to infinity and beyond!

HARD TO HANDLE-Gorman kicks off the song which was one tune that ruled the air and video waves back in the summer of 91! Cool tune even if it’s a cover and the Crowes  make it their own. Great solo by Cease.

COULD I HAVE BEEN SO BLIND-Goes to show ya why I love the early Crowes and why I really dig this record. This like many others has some cool playing and it’s basically a Crowes like tornado headed your way!

SHAKE EM ON DOWN-Is a 14 minute jam and on this cover tune you get two covers one is obviously Shake em and the other is Get Back by the Beatles and man the Crowes just zone out and let it roll (literally)…I can see where a few years later when I caught em live that they ditched the short rock and went into jams ville  and never have left. Also of note I think a buddy from way back had a Japanese copy of Southern Harmony and it had this tune on it. I could be wrong though…..

SHE TALKS TO ANGELS- Holy crap that debut was deep into hits and here’s another biggie with Robinson/Cease carrying the tune. Man,one well written tune that has stood the test of time!

DREAMS-Is another cover (Allman Brothers) and its a good track. I have never heard the original but I’m sure it’s good but for me the Black Crowes like they do on other covers Crowesize it! This is  8 minute jam so between this and Shake Em that’s over 20 minutes of Jam time. Lots of time to get fizzled in the crowd with party treats if you were present at this show!

JEALOUS AGAIN- The biggie track from Shake Your Money Maker. The opening riff is classic Keef and Mick Taylor circa Exile On Main Street! The song is a friggin fantastic  and the one that put the Crowes on the map to stay. This is a well performed song. Just classic Crowes……

IN CONCLUSION- Kudos to ITunes for adding this show which I believe was a FM broadcast that has been bootlegged and for that the sound is mint the band is mint and the crowd is fried! Ha! This is worth the $9.99 I paid! Great band and you can see how they were headed into longer live jams basically they were taking it to their level and not by what  the suit and ties had to say!

Pick this Up for some straight ahead Live Rock,no frills,no studio trickery…..

Like the dude that intros the Crowes to the stage and says “No One Gets Out Of This Rock N Roll Alive!”

Absolutely Dude Absolutley!

Black Crowes/Live In Thunder Bay (April 19/1993)

April 19/1993 Black Crowes/Izzy Stradlin (MIA) &The Ju Ju Hounds

So it’s April of 93, and well whoever the promoter was here in Tbay scored when they brought the Crowes into the old Gardens on their Southern Harmony And Musical Companion tour! The Crowes must have been out on the road forever by the time they reached Tbay. Myself, TBone and my younger Brother Todd were actually surprised that these guys were playing here when they were still current. Usually Thunder Bay gets acts once there past there primes, in other words, the Nostalgia acts. But here they are with a number 1 album in North America and umm they’re playing here?? Chalk one up for Tbay Mr. Ladano!

So the day of the show we only found out that it was Izzy Stradlin and his Hounds that were gonna be opening we were pumped  I mean we all had his first solo album that had Shuffle It All, Pressure Drop, and we all the dug the Stonesy feel to it. Well, come show time outcomes the Ju Ju Hounds with Rick Richards(Georgia Satellites) on guitar, Doni Gray on drums and Jimmy Ashurst on bass. (Ashurst looked like he was gonna toss his cookies the whole set, but he kept his shit together ) So the Ju Ju’s launch into an opening jam number, cool their gonna do a few minutes jam, and Izzy will stroll out. Ok now minutes into the show Richards begins the second song with some cool slide and vocal and now he’s singing! Shit man where’s Izzy….well there was no Izzy he was totally MIA ..that’s missing in action in Tbay no less! Total bummer as The Ju Ju’s kept rolling out what I think were cover tunes and Richards kept looking at his watch to see how much time they had left to play! (Classic, they must have thrown together a setlist at the last-minute)They were tight musically some good guitar chops but man oh man…..ah well what can ya do?

Now the Crowes come with a pretty funky cool looking stage complete with a huge net that holds most of their lights a real cool original idea(see the vid above) and there storming right into No Speak No Slave…holy crap the first thing I realize other than Chris Robinson bouncing around is actually how skinny he is! Toothpick fella But he gives her man, just jamming out and hey were into Thick N Thin. They play the staples Sting Me, Jealous Again, She Talks To Angels, Black Moon Creeping, Sister Luck, Stare It Cold, Three Little Birds, Hard To Handle, My Morning Song. They came back out for an encore which consisted of Sometimes Salvation and lemme tell ya that solo that Marc Ford peels off in that song just rips off my head off every time I hear it. Then it’s into Remedy. I think the two songs that they played in the encore lasted about half an hour!  Hey! What’s the hurry, folks.I thought that’s what I heard Chris say to the crowd…

Now the band was rock solid, but man were they gone…I just remember Rich Robinson staring straight ahead into a white spotlight in the back of the Gardens. He just stared and strummed for about 10 minutes.. hahaha.I kept looking behind me to see what he was seeing, but Ummm I just saw a white spotlight..hahaha..dudes rhythm guitar work was flawless though. Steve Gorman looked like he could be a high school teacher but shit man he pounded those skins!

Great, great show……not too many shows I have seen in Tbay with a current number one selling rock album…thanks Crowes for showing up! Izzy, were you even here??