Black Oak Arkansas - Black Oak Arkansas
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Black Oak ArkansasEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2000-04-25
Music Label: Wounded Bird Records
Soundtracks:
- Uncle Elijah
- Memories at the Window
- The Hills of Arkansas
- I Could Love You
- Hot and Nasty
- Singing the Blues
- Lord Have Mercy on My Soul
- When Electricity Came to Arkansas
Free Music Notes for Black Oak Arkansas
Free Music Review: When Electricity Came To Arkansas
Hit: 5 Stars
From the opening notes of opening cut, Uncle Elijah, it's obvious this is the real deal. This is genuine mountain music, complete with fiddle, banjo and acoustic guitar. When the verses start and that southern gospel drum beat kicks in, you know you're in the rural hills of Arkansas. But wait, there's something different here. The vocals are delivered in the style of a gospel tenor and yet seem to be coming from regions that smell of brimstone. Appealing, but almost frightening, leaving no doubt the singer at some time felt "the hand from hell". Total conviction in the truth of his words. Vocalist Jim "Dandy" Mangrum has stated that this song is based on a real man who was indeed "a Hundred and five". The band put this song together and began performing it in 1969 when they we're still known as The Knowbody Else, but it wouldn't show up on either of the two albums they recorded under that name. It was allowed to age till just the right moment, like a good batch of southern whiskey.
Second cut, Memories At The Window, lets you know that more than electricity made it to Arkansas. Cannabis at the very least has enlightened the minds of these long haired hillbillies, and you can hear it in their music. This song is genuinely progressive music. Nothing had sounded quite like this before. A hauntingly beautiful melody carried by dreamy layered guitars, but also back pedal steel, lest you forget you're in the country. The lyrics empower the music to carry you through your memories and a day dream state of mind. A trip, with or without ingesting mind altering substances. A sad song that tugs at the emotions but slowly builds to a hopeful conclusion.
The Hills Of Arkansas, song number three, is as country as it gets, with steel guitar playing as good or better than any band playing stoner country at the time. The excellent vocal harmonies in between the verses will diffinitely remind you, though, that this is a band of hippies who have just passed out of the 60's, and while moving forward, they haven't forgotten the things that made that decade's music so appealing.
Having proved their rural credentials, the band is ready to rock, and rock they do. I could Love You is a power house! Dual lead guitars supplied by Harvey "Burley" Jett (who also plays banjo when needed)and Stanley "Goober" Knight (who plays steel guitar and organ). Rickie "Ricochet" Reynolds lays down twelve string rhythm guitar on top of powerful bass and drums. This band is good, and they're hear to remind you that Wishbone Ash wasn't the first band to have two lead guitarists, and Lynyrd Skynyrd wasn't the first Southern rock band. Mangrum swaps vocals and harmonizes (in a whiskey voiced kind of way)with bassist Pat "Dirty" Daugherty and drummer Wayne "Squeezebox" Evans lays down hard on his kit, a potent reminder that there was a good drummer in the band before the talented Tommy Aldridge came along. Psyche elements pop up here and there as the song drives to it's unusual conclusion.
Evans starts off Hot And Nasty with an immensely appealing drum pattern. The rest of the band rolls into a countrified bit of powerful rock'n'roll about sex and sexual prowess. Mangrum proudly declares "they say Jim Dandy is my name" for the first time in a BOA song. It's a nickname he says he didn't really care for, but by this point he's come to accept it as part of who he is. This song is a blast from the opening drum to the jubulant conclusion with one of those trademark dual guitar jams the band became famous for. An instant classic the band still perfrms at every show to this day.
Back to straight out country music for the next song, Singing The Blues. This is the one written by Melvin Endsley and taken to the top of the charts by Guy Mitchell in 1957. It is not the 1920's song as stated elsewhere. Killer country guitar plucking and steel playing on this one. If not for Jim's gruff vocal and the band's hair being so long, they could've passed for an excellent C&W group with ease.
Lord Have Mercy On My Soul is one of the most popular of all BOA songs, and not without reason. Mangrum narrates this experience "that might've been real" over a church/funeral organ and whst sounds like maybe water and fire. As he goes on about being torn between good and evil, and the struggle for his soul, you can hear (is it the devil?) whispering, "I want it", and wailing voices, mourners at a funeral, or is it the wailing of tormented souls in hell? Before you can make up your mind, the southern fried boogie rock kicks into gear and you're havin' a good time despite the serious tone of the lyrics. Spiritual themes would frequently turn up on BOA albums throughout their long career, but they never forgot how to have fun either.
The album closer sums it all up best: When Electricity Came To Arkansas. Voices around some campfire, speaking an unknown tounge. Like some holy roller church? Perhaps an Indian dialect? Backwards English? Or just plain gibberish? It doesn't really matter. Jim Dandy starts sliding those thimbles up and down that washboard and the chanting grows more enthusiastic. "Gettin' High!" someone proclaims and the band rolls into a blues boogie with a galloping Native American beat and you just feel great and alive, filled with joy at the elctrified rock and roll from Arkansas that's entering through the ears and permeating your whole body with this blast of musical energy. This is genuine homegrown music as it should be and nothing else matters as those guitars wail on over that thumping bass and primitive drum beat. Who needs lyrics? The music has spoken loud and clear.
One winter when I was about 15, I went out crusin' with a couple of good friends who were a few years older than me. It snowed all day and by that evening it was pretty deep for southwest Missouri. Few ventured out that night, and many that did got stuck. My friend Richard had the foresight to put chains on his tires when it started to snow, and we cruised all night in that gold firebird (just like the one on the 1st season of The Rockford Files). He had an 8 Track tape player (as many did back then) and only two tapes in the car, The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers and the self titled release from Black Oak Arkansas that I'm now reviewing. I'd heard 'em both before, and knew they were good albums, but I was about to become thoroughly aquainted. We cruised for hours and played those tapes over and over, enhanced by Columbian Gold and cans of Coors. We had a blast just puttin' along through the snow packed roads. Well when the adventure was over, one album was going through my head more than the other. I went out and bought it that week, and I'll give you a hint, it wasn't the Stones. I've never regretted that decission and never will.
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