Fantastic CD....the last 2 Bloodrock albums and unreleased "
Lee J. Davito | 07/24/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you're expecting to hear more of the original Bloodrock sound....you may be disappointed...but if you liked Stevie Hills incredibly flowing Hammond B-3...Eddie Grundys consistently solid and imaginative bass style and Nick Taylors always impressive guitar playing (from their efforts on the first 5 Bloodrock albums) as these 3 are the nucleus of all three albums included in this set....Rick Cobb plays only on the first album.....his style is immediately identifiable....Randy Reeder steps in on the 2nd album on drums....Warren Ham takes over the vocal spotlight from Jim Rutledge...offering a much cleaner sounding voice style...while also playing sax, flute and harmonica (he also toured with Carol King in the late 80's or early 90's and played excellent sax for her). The 3rd album was more along the lines of Hendrixes "Electric Ladyland...alot of guest musicians brought in for this effort...altho it maintains the Bloodrock sound found on all 3 albums..
The recording quality is excellent...hats off to Eddie Grundy for superb job....I like the material from all 3 albums...am a diehard Bloodrock fan.....I would say that this set places them further up into the realm of what "progressive rock" is all about....the earlier albums were more straight forward rock....aside from where Bloodrock 3 took more of a jazzy approach and revealed that these guys had some serious chops...
I would recommend this to anybody who ever liked Bloodrock....listen with an open mind and open heart....dont think you'll be disappointed at all."
From being influenced by Deep Purple--to influencing Kansas
Shelby Lambert | Bethany, Oklahoma USA | 04/09/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"After listening to this music recently, I had a flashback to a poster I once saw from about this same time period, of a concert in Kansas, where the group, Kansas, was opening for Bloodrock. Keep in mind, this was before Kansas had even recorded their debut album. Wonder if they knew them in another life? Let's six-degrees it...
Something tells me "these" guys had run-ins in with "those" guys in the same part of the country all the way back to the Lewisville Pop festival in Texas back in 1969. Kerry Livgren from Kansas was a long time fan of another group that Bloodrock's previous producer, Terry Knight, was producing, called Grand Funk Railroad, and had come down interstate 35 from Topeka to attend that festival, at the same time Bloodrock was there, waiting in the wings to be signed by Mr. Knight. Kerry says to this day he was looking for a singer like GFR's singer to emulate. I think he was also looking for a hard-rocking band, with more progressive-jazz leanings to emulate, as well. All the while he was looking at GFR, I think he was also secretly eye-balling their little brother, Bloodrock. And it was that slight change from the gruff-vocals of Jim Rutledge to the silky ones of Warren ham, less of the Ritchie Blackmore-like riffing of Lee Pickens, and more of the organ and synth of Stevie Hill, that Kerry Livgren finally found the template for his group, Kansas. He was probably listening hours on an end to this album to get his ideas. You should as well."
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1