Long before the super market aisle news of doomed marriages and the ridiculous campaigns that promoted the band as sure-fire future members of the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame (“Lickin’” from 2001’s Lions was all over classic rock radio for a while with just such nonsensical introductions from idiot DJs), The Black Crowes were a tight, young, hungry group of Southern rock wielding potheads, in their prime and fit to deliver a near-classic record. And that they did: The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion was a giant leap from the vastly more popular Shake Your Money Maker, full of the same blues-rock influences but infused with infinitely more personality. The debut showed a band clearly indebted to (and sometimes clearly ripping off) their blues-rock forefathers, whereas the sophomore record took those influences and spoke them in their own musical language.
“Sometimes Salvation” is the highlight, an imposing slab of heavy riffage and throat-wrenching screams crashing against interrupting walls of silence, the band start-stopping on a dime. To call it a “raw” performance wouldn’t do it justice - the thing is still alive and kicking, running around the forest with blood dripping from its razor sharp teeth. Chris Robinson gives the vocal performance of his career, the vices he sings of are desperate and contagious. How could he have known the addiction would hurt this bad? - but faith is ten times harder. What results over the song’s final minute and a half is, quite simply, the sound of a band reaching their full potential, and then some.
MP3 :: Sometimes Salvation
(from The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion)
And check out the video, featuring Sophia Coppola in her post-Godfather Part III, pre-Virgin Suicides awkward phase:
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Purchase The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion, and other Black Crowes releases, from Amazon.
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“Sometimes Salvation” is the highlight, an imposing slab of heavy riffage and throat-wrenching screams crashing against interrupting walls of silence, the band start-stopping on a dime. To call it a “raw” performance wouldn’t do it justice - the thing is still alive and kicking, running around the forest with blood dripping from its razor sharp teeth. Chris Robinson gives the vocal performance of his career, the vices he sings of are desperate and contagious. How could he have known the addiction would hurt this bad? - but faith is ten times harder. What results over the song’s final minute and a half is, quite simply, the sound of a band reaching their full potential, and then some.
MP3 :: Sometimes Salvation
(from The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion)
And check out the video, featuring Sophia Coppola in her post-Godfather Part III, pre-Virgin Suicides awkward phase:
----------------------------------------------------
Purchase The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion, and other Black Crowes releases, from Amazon.
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