[Today: Ragged swagger...]
Nirvana, Pearl Jam and the grunge crowd usually get credit for changing music in the early 90s, but between 1990 and 1992, there was a tsunami of new artists who crashed onto the music scene. A partial list of those debuting or coming into prominence includes the Pixies, Jane’s Addiction, Primus, Sublime, PJ Harvey, Rage Against The Machine, Massive Attack, Dr. Dre, Smashing Pumpkins, Cypress Hill, Nine Inch Nails, Tool, White Zombie, Liz Phair, Steve Earle, Flaming Lips, Ween, Kyuss, Primal Scream, Happy Mondays, Uncle Tupelo, Lenny Kravitz and even novelty acts like Dread Zeppelin and Vanilla Ice. The Seattle bands had a big hand in ushering in a new era, but they were far from the only agents of change. Interesting music seemed to be springing up everywhere.
Atlanta, GA contributed The Black Crowes, who surprised the world in 1990 with a hit cover of Otis Redding’s ‘Hard To Handle’. Their debut showed a ton of promise, but was uneven enough to leave hardened rock fans wondering if this group was for real. Their 1992 follow-up The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion alleviated any such concerns. An instant masterpiece, this album called to mind the spirit of bands like the Stones, the Allmans, and Skynyrd – if not in sound then certainly in ragged swagger. Brothers Chris (vocals) and Rich Robinson (guitar) fought like Ray and Dave Davies and smoked weed like Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia. And with Southern Harmony…, they put together an album as cohesive and grimy and perfect as Sticky Fingers or Second Helping.
The Crowes improved on the sound of their debut by adding back-up singers, but this is clearly an instance of a band coming into their own before your very ears. ‘Sting Me’ and ‘Remedy’ are as great an album-opening pair of songs as you’re likely to find. From ‘Hotel Illness’ to ‘No Speak No Slave’ to album closer ‘Time Will Tell’ (a cover of Bob Marley, no less), each of these 10 songs has its purpose and place. This band was of the south, but not bound by it, and if the backup singers give this album a quasi-gospel feel, the whole thing harkens back to a time when rock albums still mattered, and rockstars still wore bell-bottom jeans. The Black Crowes sounded like classic rock, but in the best way – they were instantly classic.
Listen: Sting Me
Listen: Remedy
Listen: Hotel Illness
Listen: No Speak No Slave
Listen: Time Will Tell
Tags: The Black Crowes, The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion
18 February 2011 at 2:15 pm |
Great album. But the Crowes were Atlanta, not Athens.
18 February 2011 at 5:09 pm |
Thanks Furr. Shit, I knew that – not sure how I managed to mess that up, but I appreciate the catch…
22 February 2011 at 9:52 pm |
Thanks – i remember listening to this album at a friends and enjoying it. I haven’t really paid that much attention to the Black Crowes.
27 February 2011 at 8:27 am |
Here’s a rough recap of what they’ve been up to since then…
27 February 2011 at 8:30 am |
[...] into Stones/Beatles pantheon territory). With their 1990 debut, Shake Your Money Maker, 1992 album Southern Harmony & Musical Companion and 1994′s Amorica, the Crowes pretty much single-handedly resuscitated Southern Rock and [...]