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REISSUES: NEW THEN. NEW AGAIN
ALABAMA
Livin' Lovin' Rockin’ Rollin':
The 25th Anniversary Collection
RCA/ Legacy
Much '80s country music has since been
ranked in the files of offensive smelling cheese,
something that emanates from overhead speakers
while you're shopping for groceries or browsing
at the liquor store. The omnipresent foursome
of good ol' boys called Alabama, though, should
be considered an exception, as they've amassed
one of the genre's most enduring and emulated
back catalogs. A three-disc box set released to
commemorate the band's 25th anniversary with
RCA, Livin' Lovin' Rockin’ Rollin' collects many of
their career highlights and reinforces how they've
balanced the allegiance of both church-going
conservatives and the longhaired contingent that
boosted the band through its early days.
Over the years, bandmembers Randy Owen,
Teddy Gentry, Jeff Cook and Mark Herndon ful
filled many requirements for the Nashville indus
try. On “Roll On (Eighteen Wheeler)“ and "Forty
Hour Week," they were the country equivalent of
Springsteen. "Tennessee River" and "Mountain
Music" owed much to muscular Southern rockers
like the Charlie Daniels Band and with sappy,
overindulgent love songs
like "Feels So Right" they
were, unfortunately, the
honky-tonk Hall & Oates.
The band that Alabama
resembled the most,
though (in terms of musi
cal scope), was the Eagles.
They, too, were an ex-bar
band that went on to re
cord pristine studio singles
injected with enough
everyman-isms that they
could accompany a public
service ad celebrating fam
ily values just as easily as
they could a cold-filtered beer commercial.
The set's first disc compiles the band's most
familiar and, in some cases, over-familiar hits;
the second mostly covers those aforementioned
pristine ballads; the third focuses mainly on lat
ter-day singles. From the Skynyrd pride of "My
Home's In Alabama" to the yuppie-condemning
"When It All Goes South," there's actually a
wealth of detailed Southern songcraft beneath
those big drums and clean gloss.
Alabama crossed over when country was in
search of a slicker image, but its subject matter
had more in common with the basic song struc
ture and proud ideals that country's old guard
had set down long before. Livin' Lovin’ Rockin'
Rollin' documents this and also makes apparent
that few major label bands have maintained such
a consistent, comfortable medium between coun
try, rock and pop.
JIM CROCE
Have You Heard: Jim Croce Live
Shout Factory
The live Have You Heord. a revisiting of the
’2003 DVD of the same name, compiles several of
Jim Croce's live television appearances from such
shows as Britain's "Old Grey Whistle Test." This is
the closest thing possible to a proper Croce live
album, as the singer-songwriter died in a 1973
plane crash. Given that, the collection flows
commendably well, capturing Croce's humorous
nature and his keen eye for human detail
Part of the album's charm is that it also
captures some of Croce’s great pre-song intro
ductions, like those that preface 'Roller Derby
Queen" and "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," from which
we learn the true story behind the man that
Croce claimed was "meaner than a junkyard dog,"
but was actually a disgruntled infantryman who
went AWOL from his regiment.
Many of these acoustic performances also
reinforce how strong the musical chemistry be
tween Croce and lead guitarist Maury Muehleisen
was. On the firecracker truckers lament
"Speedball Tucker," they bounce bent licks off
one another like clockwork, while softer ballads
like "Lover's Cross" remind us that Croce was one
of the greats when it came to honestly discuss
ing relationship difficulties in song.
FREDDIE KING
Live at the Electric Ballroom, 1974
Shout Factory
Freddie King never attained the iconic status
of his no-relation namesake B.B., but his style
of electric guitar playing greatly influenced
many well-known players, including Eric Clapton
and the Vaughan Brothers. Live at the Electric
Ballroom, 1974 resurrects a performance recorded
at the late Atlanta venue that has been revisited
twice thus far, as its original release didn't come
about until 1996.
A capable guitarist and bandleader in his own
right. King tears through such blues standards
as "Oust My Broom," "Keys To the Highway" and
"Sweet Home Chicago"
alongside a capable back
ing band that benefits from
Alvin Hemphill's soulful or
gan fills and Benny Turner's
rubbery bass. The accompa
nying interview segments,
culled from a Dallas ra
dio-station stop, don't re
ally provide anything that
noteworthy, but the live
acoustic tracks are far more
rewarding bonuses.
Paired with a near-
seven-minute workout on
the instrumental champ
"Hideaway" (later a staple of fellow Telecaster
enthusiast Danny Gatton), they make Live at the
Electric Ballroom, 1974 a suitable, compact, sam
pling of King's fiery brand of Texas blues.
JOHN FOGERTY
The Long Road Home
Fantasy
The Long Road Home fulfills two firsts for
ex-Creedence Clearwater Revival big chief John
Fogerty. It's both the first disc to compile his
well-known Creedence hits alongside more recent
solo material and his first release since resolving
old beefs with original label Fantasy Records.
At 25 tracks. Long Roads playing time
is nearly equivalent to that of the standard
Creedence hits package Chronicle and compiles
material from CCR's first album on up to the title
track of last year's D6jd Vu All Over Again.
The anti-war anthem "Fortunate Son" appears
twice, but strangely, the solo single "Rock N' Roll
Girl" is missing. Also, the chance to reintroduce
Fogert/s first post-Creedence outing with the
countrified Blue Ridge Rangers is passed up to
instead include a few from his haphazard self-
titled follow-up.
Nevertheless, the fact that Fogerty has such
an incredible hit/miss tally alone makes Long
Road Home a safe bet. He may not have actually
been brought up in the Louisiana swamp country,
but on this collection, nearly four generations
of Fogerty consistently capture both that area's
bluesy swagger and contagious energy.
Michael Andrews
Redux Nation is a monthly column focusing on
album reissues, repockagings and box sets.
34 FLAGPOLE.COM • FEBRUARY 8,2006
