EPOCH6

One of benefits of a long morning commute is the opportunity to sit back and really focus on an album start to finish, it's a great way to break in albums you've never heard before, and when it comes roots rock, cruising down the highway across the countryside at sunrise is just about the best possible way to soak in these albums. Spent the last three mornings giving The Marshall Tucker Band's first three albums that treatment.

At first I was disappointed in myself for passing the Marshall Tucker Band by so many times over the last couple of years without giving their albums much of a chance, I was only familiar with 'Fire on the Mountain' and that track never really clicked with me, so I never developed much of an interest in checking them out any further, but on second thought there has never been a better time in my life than now to hear these albums, having recently settled down far from the city in my favorite corner of the Fraser Valley. Similar to my experience with Little Feat early last month I've found out that I was completely wrong about the Marshall Tucker Band, these three albums are fantastic and an absolute joy to listen to.

My initial impression of the Marshall Tucker Band, before this week, was that they leaned too far to the country pop side of the Country Rock spectrum for my taste. I think coming to that conclusion after hearing "Fire on the Mountain" is fair, it's a great song, but in the grander scope of Marshall Tucker Band material it's much less adventurous than some of their more bluesy jam oriented early 70s material. Now that I've really had a sit down with their early albums I've realized how adventurous they really were, adventurous in the same way that The Allman Brothers were adventurous, which is no surprise in retrospect considering they launched their careers on the same label, Capricorn Records.

This is exactly the sort of approach to roots rock that I spend so much time looking for, where a band of immense talent and musicianship pulls in as much influence as possible from the past, tastefully brings it all together, and produces something unbelievably inspired and novel for its time. The Marshall Tucker Band at their best (the below tracks in my opinion are a few excellent examples) are only second to The Allman Brothers for me right now, besides a few slightly less impressive tracks here and there I don't think I could be more satisfied with these three albums. The musicianship, songwriting talent, and creativity that this band as a group brings to the table is awe inspiring. I will definitely be combing through the record shop for these three releases this weekend.

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