Of all the “good-ol-boy” bands that came out of the Southern
\nRock explosion of the ’70s, possibly one of the biggest bands
\nforgotten by history is Molly Hatchet. Oh, sure, they had their
\nshare of the spotlight in the late ’70s, but as time passed and the
\ncurrents of popular music turned in their ever-changing course, the
\nband seemed to quickly fade into the background, becoming a blip on
\nthe musical radar screen.<\/p>\n
Of course, they’ve been around all this time, fighting it out
\nfor recognition among the crowded rock scene. And with the addition
\nto their discography of
\nLive At The Agora Ballroom, Atlanta, Georgia, April 20,
\n1979<\/i>, people can travel back in time to try and re-discover the
\nspark that made these guys something special way back when.<\/p>\n
Like many live concerts from this time period, this particular
\nalbum already has to fight an uphill battle in that its sound is
\nquite dated. Led by the triple-guitar attack of Dave Hlubek, Duane
\nRoland and Steve Holland, Molly Hatchet plow through 12 tracks
\nwhich run from the exciting to the bland, even to the
\n“didn’t-we-just-hear-this-before?” style. More on that
\nmomentarily.<\/p>\n
Admittedly,
\nLive At The Agora Ballroom<\/i> gets better the more you listen
\nto it. Maybe this is because Molly Hatchet really isn’t a band
\nyou’ll get into with just one cursory listen. You need to allow
\nyourself to be swept away by the music and the grooves the band
\nlays down — and it’s not always the easiest thing to allow
\nyourself to do. Maybe it’s because sometimes, as on “Gator Country”
\nand “The Harp Jam,” the trip is a bit stormy.<\/p>\n
Yet Molly Hatchet does redeem itself often throughout the course
\nof the disc. From their cover of The Allman Brothers Band’s “Dreams
\n(I’ll Never See)” to their originals such as “Bounty Hunter,”
\n“Boogie No More” and “The Creeper,” vocalist Danny Joe Brown and
\ncompany demonstrate that there was some substance to the southern
\nstyle these guys absolutely oozed from every pore.<\/p>\n
Yet sometimes it’s that reliance on being a Southern band that
\nthreatens to derail Molly Hatchet’s train. Listen to their versions
\nof “T For Texas” and “Crossroads,” and don’t be surprised if you
\nfind yourself thinking you’ve heard these before. If you own Lynyrd
\nSkynyrd’s
\nOne More From The Road<\/i>, or you’ve ever listened to the whole
\nalbum, you’ll realize that Molly Hatchet’s versions are almost
\ncarbon copies (except for the minor obscenity Brown drops in “T For
\nTexas”). I don’t know if this was necessarily the best strategy for
\nMolly Hatchet — but you could look at it as being a tribute to
\nLynyrd Skynyrd, who had suffered the tragic plane crash 18 months
\nprior to this show. So I’m willing to cut a little slack here.<\/p>\n
The only real drawback to
\nLive At The Agora Ballroom<\/i> is that I question whether this
\ndisc will win the band over a new group of fans. For those people
\nwho followed the band back in their early days, this disc should be
\nlike manna from the skies. But the younger generation might be
\nbetter served checking out the studio albums such as
\nFlirtin’ With Disaster<\/i> or the band’s self-titled effort
\nbefore diving into this one; if anything, it might provide them
\nwith a little more understanding of what this band was (and is) all
\nabout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5906],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-36788","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-molly-hatchet","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36788","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=36788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36788"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36788"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}