{"id":46933,"date":"2024-07-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-southern-harmony-and-musical-companion\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T11:20:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T11:20:07","slug":"the-southern-harmony-and-musical-companion","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-southern-harmony-and-musical-companion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Way back in 1997, in one of the first reviews<\/a> that ever ran on this site, I declared the following:<\/p>\n

\u201c[The Black Crowes\u2019s] next work, <\/i>The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion, sounded like a band trying to deal with the sudden wave of success, and they weren\u2019t handling it well. The album, in turn, suffered.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

A great amount of time has passed since I wrote those words, and I recently decided to pull off the shelves of the Pierce Memorial Archives the sophomore effort from Chris & Rich Robinson and crew. Certainly the passage of nearly three decades would provide me with a clearer insight into just what they were trying to accomplish, right?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that their previous effort, Shake Your Moneymaker<\/i>, was written to capture the pop sensibilities of the record-buying public. Certain songs, like \u201cTwice As Hard,\u201d \u201cJealous Again\u201d and even the ballad \u201cShe Talks To Angels,\u201d however, just seemed to fit that particular niche, bringing the band an incredible level of success right out of the gate.<\/p>\n

For The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion,<\/i> it\u2019s almost like the brothers Robinson looked back at their previous work and said, \u201cNow<\/i><\/b> what?\u201d They could have continued down a radio-friendly road, or they could throw caution to the wind and present music they<\/i> liked and challenge the audience to accept it on the band\u2019s own terms.<\/p>\n

It is that second path they chose\u2014and that made all the difference. The follow-up album is nowhere as approachable as their debut was, almost mocking the listener to follow them along this largely unplowed path. And, while there are moments of greatness still to be heard, it\u2019s not as strong of an effort overall in comparison.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t help that the band had undergone their first significant lineup change; out was guitarist Jeff Cease, and in was Marc Ford. Also in was keyboardist Eddie Harsch, who took over for session svengali Chuck Leavell.<\/p>\n

Look, there\u2019s no denying the four singles off this disc marked some of their best work (though I\u2019d argue to the death to this day that \u201cRemedy\u201d was not the best choice for leadoff single). \u201cHotel Illness\u201d has enough of a \u201cJealous Again\u201d vibe to keep the listener comfortable, and is overall a very strong track, while \u201cSting Me\u201d and \u201cThorn In My Pride\u201d both stand out as well.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, one of the better tracks never got selected as a single; \u201cMy Morning Song\u201d has more than a few flashes of that early brilliance that the Black Crowes became known for.<\/p>\n

Regrettably, the remaining half of The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion<\/i> lacks that flash and power. \u201cBlack Moon Creeping\u201d isn\u2019t terrible, but doesn\u2019t do enough to stand out among the disc\u2019s 10 tracks. \u201cBad Luck Blue Eyes Goodbye\u201d feels like it drags on for far too long, and \u201cSometimes Salvation\u201d has the vibe of something that might have been otherwise relegated to a b-side. The choice of covering Bob Marley\u2019s \u201cTime Will Tell\u201d to close the album is a questionable one, as the musical style just doesn\u2019t feel like it fits the Crowes well. (I\u2019d say something about relying on a cover, but Shake Your Moneymaker<\/i> became well known for their cover of Otis Redding\u2019s \u201cHard To Handle.\u201d)<\/p>\n

It could well be that The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion<\/i> is the kind of disc that has to grow on the listener\u2014and I\u2019m not blind to the fact this disc has made several \u201cbest of\u201d lists. But, if I haven\u2019t warmed up to this album after over 30 years, it\u2019s hard to make that claim for anyone else walking into this disc. It certainly has its moments, but remains a disappointing follow-up from The Black Crowes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5681],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-46933","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-black-crowes","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46933","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=46933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46933"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}