The Black Crowes, "The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion"
Don sends a valentine to his musical soul mates
Don’s Pitch:
Back in 2008 I was in Prague, working on an important project that required staying an extra day. My contribution was complete, so I could either be a team player and stick around to the finish line or travel home to my family in the States.
Of course, I did what every self-respecting man would do: I rearranged everything for a sojourn to Amsterdam.
Upon arrival, I checked into a seedy hotel near the city centre and proceeded to slink through narrow streets looking for my rendezvous. When I met her, I handed over a wad of Euros, and she satisfied my fix: a ticket to see my favorite band, The Black Crowes, at Heineken Music Hall.
Hey, you do what you gotta do for the ones you love. After all, The Black Crowes are my musical soul mates.
###
Growing up, I spent my lawn-mowing money on ‘50s 45s, ‘60’s Dylan and turn-of-the ‘70’s Beatles LPs. While my friends were crazy for Black Sabbath and Van Halen, I was immersed in music much darker (Nick Drake) and more fun (Stax). Let’s just say I wasn’t impressing my peers with this stuff. But even I felt a bit wistful, because my favorite artists were from another generation.
My rhythm was out of time.
Out of nowhere in 1990, along came The Black Crowes, who made it *impossible* to sit still. Their debut - Shake Your Money Maker - was at first derided by some for being derivative, but I’m here to say that the Crowes, though commercially eclipsed by grunge, were actually the most alternative band of the 1990s.
Turns out, they were just getting started. Because their follow-up was the best rock and roll album of the decade and, arguably, my lifetime: The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. My words can’t do it justice, so I’ll simply make two comments. You must listen on headphones and check your pulse if you’re not boogying within the first few bars of the opening “Sting Me.” And if you don’t get goosebumps during the “sunrise” break down of “My Morning Song”, no one can help you.
I’ll never forget the first time I listened to it, in the parking lot of Westport Record & Tape, through my car stereo. It was love at first listen. After searching forever, I’d finally found *my band*.
For three decades, I’ve followed The Black Crowes everywhere, inventing “business” trips to far out cities around the world and across the USA. I’ve seen them blow the roof off Letterman’s studio. Watched Jimmy Page joyously join their band. Was in the room when they recorded a double album of all new material at Levon Helm’s Woodstock barn. And I’ve been to countless shows with the people most important to me: my wife, kids, siblings, best friends.
Through it all, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion has been my life’s soundtrack.
###
If your rhythm ever falls out of time
You can bring it to me
And I will make it all fine
‘Cause if your heart is beating free
For the very first time it will be alright
- My Morning Song
Mitch’s Response:
My love for The Black Crowes in general - and for their drummer Steve Gorman in particular - is well known around these parts. Don and I became friends because of the Crowes and I don’t have space here to adequately express what the band, the music, or the hilariously feisty community of Amoricans truly means to me.
I was hooked on the Crowes the very first time I heard “Jealous Again” and fell completely in love after seeing them at a nightclub called Saratoga Winners in 1990. To experience a young band, at the height of their ambition, playing with such power and passion, in such a small room was magical. If it stopped there, it would have been enough.
But then The Black Crowes made the leap and went from being a good band with great songs to being a great band with great songs. With the release of The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion they exceeded all expectations, transcended their influences, and became a truly special band.
Every song on Southern Harmony is excellent and the album as a whole is a delight from beginning to end. It is an intense, bluesy, soulful, hip-shaking experience and the way the Crowes balance power and space is impressive. There’s no over-playing and no show-boating. Every detail is in service to the song. The music is bigger than them all.
Specifically, Chris’s vocal control and poetic lyrics that stay well above the “Morrison Line”; Rich’s heavy and addictive riffs; Steve’s swing without sacrificing strength; Marc’s masterclass in dramatic, tasteful soloing; Ed’s gravitas and filigrees; and Johnny holding it all together.
The songs will always fill the air, but what made Southern Harmony special - hell, what made The Black Crowes special - wasn’t the songs. It was that band - those six guys and the chemistry between them at that point in time. They took the leap, and from that point forward, we all jumped with them. With Southern Harmony they gave us something of staggering beauty - one of the greatest rock records ever. And if it stopped there, it would have been enough.
Saratoga Winners burned down in 2009. The cause was arson.
Pitch Successful
CJ’s Response:
Between 2008 and 2013, I saw The Black Crowes in concert about a dozen times. One reason I attended so many of their shows was because I wanted to hang out with Mitch, Don and Ken. Another reason was that I got to drink a few beers, dance around and generally act like I was 21 again, which was when I first saw the Crowes open for Aerosmith at the old Boston Garden. But, the final reason is the most important of all.
I went because The Black Crowes are a fucking rock band and those are in short supply.
I don’t know if the Crowes saved rock ‘n’ roll, but it certainly was in a dismal state of affairs when they showed up with 1990’s Shake Your Money Maker. Without even looking, I bet you know at least half the songs on that album. My personal favorite was “Seeing Things”, which I felt captured the best parts of the music they were so desperately trying to revive.
However, the toughest part of making a smash debut album is following it. As Elvis Costello said, “You have 20 years to write your first album and six months to write your second one.” So, the Crowes really couldn’t be blamed if they hit a sophomore slump.
But, they didn’t.
The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion is an album by a band that knows exactly who they are. There is a confidence and a swagger to this effort that you don’t generally associate with a band so early in its career arc. “Sting Me”, “Remedy” and “Thorn In My Pride” are like going homerun, homerun, triple to lead off the game. From there, it’s a dealer’s choice of bluesy ballads (“Bad Luck Blue Eyes Goodbye”/”Sometime Salvation”), mid-tempo grinders (“Hotel Illness”/”My Morning Song”) and southern fried ass-kickers (“No Speak No Slave”/”My Morning Song”).
I don’t know when I’ll get to see a concert again. But, when I do, I hope it sounds like this.
Pitch Successful
Ken’s Response:
“I been in the right place, but it must have been the wrong time.” - Dr. John
The Black Crowes burst through the proverbial front door of big-time rock bands like Darth Vader and the Stormtroopers at the beginning of 1977’s Star Wars: A New Hope. They weren’t waiting for an invitation to the party, they had blasted their way in to take over, and they almost did.
By 1990, rock ‘n’ roll was struggling to stay afloat in a pop world. The Billboard charts were loaded with names like Wilson-Phillips, En Vogue, Madonna, Paula Adbul, and New Kids on the Block. Even when the aging rockers managed to chart, it was usually with some truly awful tracks like “Another Day in Paradise'' or “Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough”, which were certainly much more adult-contempo than ROCK. But the Crowes were making real, in-your-face rock, and it kicked ass.
It’s hard to follow up a debut album that, to this day, has 5 or 6 of your most recognizable 10 songs, but somehow they did it with The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. This was a near perfect album that combined outstanding writing, incredible musicianship, and genius-level production. With two Hall of Fame albums right out of the gate, The Black Crowes were poised to become the Willie Mays of the Ruth vs. Dimaggio conversation…a late-comer that could challenge The Beatles and Led Zeppelin as the greatest of all time. Unfortunately, they were in the right place, but it must have been the wrong time. Critics were luke-warm on both of the first two albums; they claimed they were too derivative or too “simple” because a lot of their stuff had blues roots, but I believe it was because the world was moving away from old-school rock, and they didn’t want to lose fans from their respective publications. And it’s really a shame because had Southern Harmony been released the same year as A New Hope, there would have been no stopping it.
Pitch Successful
Don’s pitch wasn’t too hard to handle and The Black Crowes’ Southern Harmony and Musical Companion has been added to the Newbury St. Collection.
Is our evergreen praise for The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion a conspiracy? Come on to the comments section and go tell the congregation if this album is a cursed diamond or deserves to be the darling of the underground press.
Please join us next week as “Most Loved Albums” month keeps on truckin’ when Mitch fires up the Grateful Dead’s back-from-the-dead 1987 classic, In The Dark.
Correction: Several Black Crowes fans (who had multiple heart attacks over this) pointed out that I could not have seen the Crowes at the old Boston Garden because they never played there. After consulting the internet and the collection of ticket stubs that occupy a large plastic cup on my bureau, I figured out why I made this mistake. Aerosmith made two Boston-area stops on their 1989-90 Pump Tour. The first stop straddled the new year (December 31, 1989-January 1, 1990) and took place at the Boston Garden. The second stop was at Great Woods in Mansfield, MA June 25-26. I attended the New Year's Day show at the Garden and the June 25th show at Great Woods. The Crowes, of course, opened the Great Woods show. The opener at the Garden was Skid Row who, after the Crowes, are probably Don's favorite band. So, no harm, no foul.
The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion is, without a doubt, the greatest album of my lifetime. I'm 47 years old and as much as I've listened to it since 1992 (which is basically daily), it still sounds as fresh and swinging today, as it did back then. If you don't tap/stomp your feet, beat up your steering wheel (while air drumming along with Gorman) or lose your voice singing along with Chris and the girls on this album, you definitely need to seek medical attention. The riffs, the solos, the breakdowns, the grooves - it all just works. Flawlessly. The Crowes roped me in when I saw the video for "Jealous Again" on MTV and I've been a disciple ever since. Seeing them perform these songs live only enhances the Crowes experience. As a "bedroom" guitar player, I constantly play (or at least attempt to play) the songs from this album. The opening riff to Sting Me is so much fun to play that I play it for hours on end. Same with Thorn and No Speak, No Slave. Their music is timeless and this album will continue to be my Salvation.