A decade after stepping into the big shoes left behind by his
\nlate brother Ronnie, Johnny Van Zant has finally made Lynyrd
\nSkynyrd his own.<\/p>\n
On the band’s latest release,
\nLyve From Steel Town<\/i>, Lynyrd Skynyrd plows through a mostly
\nwell-chosen list of new favorites and old classics, and serves as a
\ngreat portrait of what this band is now capable of on the concert
\nstage.<\/p>\n
Back in 1987. Van Zant took over the role of lead throat during
\nthe
\nTribute<\/i> tour; as evidenced on
\nSouthern By The Grace Of God<\/i>, he had a solid voice, but
\nsounded very tentative singing the songs that his big brother had
\nhelped make famous. Now, it’s 1998, and Van Zant has the knowledge
\nand experience to sound comfortable with the material – and he has
\nnew songs to back him up as well.<\/p>\n
Of the new material, the ghost of Ronnie Van Zant is still
\npresent on “Travellin’ Man,” which he sings with Johnny (through
\nvideo and audio archival footage), much to the delight of the
\nPittsburgh audience. And though I still have yet to purchase their
\nlast studio album
\nTwenty<\/i>, if songs like “We Ain’t Much Different” and “Voodoo
\nLake” are any signs of what’s on that disc, I’ll be at Best Buy
\ntonight. (Only one song fails to impress me, “Berneice”.)<\/p>\n
But when it comes time to sing the old standbys, Johnny Van Zant
\nsimply blows all doubt away. From “Saturday Night Special” to a
\nsurprise inclusion, “On The Hunt,” Van Zant powers through the
\nvocals, sounding similar to his brother (but with enough difference
\nthat keeps the sound fresh) – and is even comfortable enough to
\nad-lib an occasional vocal. Another surprise is hearing “Free Bird”
\nsung again – on the last live album, Van Zant politely refused to
\nsing it, saying only one person had the right to sing that
\nparticular song. (And as touching as it was to hear the audience
\nsing it in 1987, it feels right now to hear Johnny Van Zant singing
\nthe song.)<\/p>\n
Two minor things that I wasn’t fond of on
\nLyve From Steel Town<\/i>. First, they could work horns into a
\ncouple of songs, but they couldn’t use them on “What’s Your Name,”
\nwhere they were very much missed? And, as much as Van Zant wanted
\nto pump up the crowd, he seems at times to be a bit pushy in
\nforcing a louder response from them. (I also have to admit, I’ll
\nalways miss the guitar work of Ed King and the drumming of Artimus
\nPyle – sorry, I’m still living in the past.)<\/p>\n
\nLyve From Steel Town<\/i> contains a few non-musical surprises as
\nwell. The inclusion of two live radio interviews might be
\ndistracting to the casual fan, but for the drooling Skynyrd fan
\nlike myself, these are incredibly interesting to listen to (even if
\nthe sound quality isn’t the greatest). And though I couldn’t get it
\nto work on my antiquated CD-ROM, this release is enhanced with two
\nmovies from the corresponding home video release, as well as lots
\nof other goodies. (You’ll have to tell me how good they were; I’ll
\ntake your word for it.)<\/p>\n
And as much as I’ve enjoyed Lynyrd Skynyrd’s previous two live
\nalbums, there is something special about
\nLyve From Steel Town<\/i>. It could very well be that the ghosts
\nof the past, though still gently guiding the band into the 21st
\nCentury, no longer cast a pall on the performances like they did in
\n1987. It’s also amazing that the music has hardly aged a day,
\nsounding as fresh today as they did as far back as 1973.<\/p>\n
\nLyve From Steel Town<\/i> is one of the better live albums I’ve
\nheard in a long time, and quite possibly could be the definitive
\nLynyrd Skynyrd live album. By keeping one foot in the past and the
\nother in the present, Lynyrd Skynyrd prove to even the greatest
\nskeptic they’re planning on being relevant in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5709],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-35931","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-lynyrd-skynyrd","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35931"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35931"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}