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Not so Hot

Anon. | Michigan | 08/03/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"If you just want to hear Clarence White play guitar then get this cd. However, if you want to hear a decent country rock album with good songwriting, singing and a good overall band, then get something by the Flying Burrito Brothers or Dillard and Clark. This album is mostly covers and the lead singer is terrible. I could hardly stand to listen to him. The instrumentals are the best part of this cd.



"

Who knew??!!

L. Allen | Memphis, TN USA | 04/17/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"To discover that Clarence White was playing a non-B-Bender-equipped Telecaster like he does on these recordings from early 1968(!) is nothing short of revelatory. For guitarists, especially those with an interest in countrified electric guitar, what a twenty-something White was doing is on the same level as what Jimi Hendrix did for rock guitar - it is that astounding. It is noteworthy that while there were some very good country pickers who must have inspired the young White on electric guitar (he was already established at the time as a very adept acoustic country flatpicker with the Kentucky Colonels), most notably Don Rich with Buck Owens and Roy Nichols with Merle Haggard, what Clarence White developed was an attempt to emulate the pedal steel guitar by bending multiple strings.

Okay, the singing by Gib Guilbeau is pretty pedestrian bar-band country, and the songs are mostly '60s country standard-fare, but Gene Parsons (like White, a future Byrds member) was a kick-butt drummer driving the band - and White - to better heights than they had a right to, given the material. The recordings are surprisingly clean, although the backing vocals are mostly lost, which is too bad as Guilbeau's thin voice takes undeserved prominence in the mix; thankfully, the lead guitar is very present. But if you are a guitar-picker or simply curious as to the beginnings of modern electric country guitar (think Pete Anderson, Vince Gill, Brad Paisley, or Marty Stuart - who provides liner notes for this reissue), this recording is a must-have documentation of where it all came from."