Octo_Russ

The Black Crowes [The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion] 

It's been over two years since i last played this album, many people would think that means that i don't really like this album anymore, nothing could be further from the truth, this resides at No50 in my all time favourite list, it's just that it's evaded my CD player somehow, but i always catch the good ones in the end!.

The Black Crowes are an American Rock band formed in 1989, they have had different line ups over the years, but their mainstays are two brothers, Chris and Rich Robinson, they play some nice southern bluesy Rock, a bit like the Allman Brothers or The Rolling Stones, in my mind this is their best album, drenched in swampy but loud Blues / Rock, the booklet is really nice, the front cover is by Mark Seliger, showing what i believe is a car junkyard, the booklet within has the full lyrics written in a nice scrolling type.

Well in giving this disc another spin today, and i really liked all of the tracks, except the last one, which i feel is really quite poor, but it was track 6 'Hotel Illness' which got me marvelling at the lyrical prowess of these guys, the words conjure up some nice images in my head, consider this line,

I got a head full of sermons

and a mouth full of spiders

i don't know why, but this vision just excites me, what does it mean?, a clear head full of perfect sermons, but when it comes time to preach, a whole load of horrible spiders come out instead, i suppose a block between brain and tongue, the music is incredibly contagious, the harmonica and drums really kick in at [0:08], and it's this harmonica that plays inbetween the vocal lines, the chorus comes in at [0:57], at the intensity of the vocal delivery goes up a notch, on the second verse the national guitar comes in [1:24], giving a lovely atmospheric twang to the mix, the lead electric guitar takes up a solo [2:24], and straight after this is cleverly supported by the rhythm guitar, there's a degree of jamming in the outro, and there's a nice touch right at the end as the electric guitar slowly 'dies' [3:49] but not a fade out, other tracks are similarly loaded, a great 'road album'.

Here's the Black Crowes singing Hotel Illness on YouTube.