Search - Ozark Mountain Daredevils :: The Car Over the Lake Album

A Sound That Fits

Jerry Fry | Freeman, MO USA | 08/22/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"You don't need to be from the Ozarks to appreciate this album but it doesn't hurt. I rate this as The Daredevils best album. Although there are many good songs on their other albums, I'd have to say there are more on this one. "Mr. Powell" is one of the best. It's in reference to the journey through the Grand Canyon he and his party took , "Just about a hundred years or so ago". Some of these songs will always sound good no matter how much time passes. Some will call this Country or Country Rock but I would also define it as Folk music. "From Time to Time" is a beautiful song that you can feel. All the songs are good, there aren't many albums like that, and it's just my opinion, but if you've heard anything else by the "Ozarks" that you liked you should hear this."

The Car Over The Lake Album Cover Album

Mark Champion | San Antonio, TX United States | 03/18/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"They did it again with their third release, and again with David Anderle at the producer's console. There are some problems - - the two tracks which originally were the album-side openers ("Keep On Churnin'" and "Thin Ice") are perfunctory exercises in both performance and intention. And it seems they front-loaded the album a bit, as tracks two through six play like a best-of sequence: five absolutely astonishing songs, parading gloriously one after another. Randall Chowning's "Leatherwood" is peerless, a beautiful countrified paeon to the easy life, with a gorgeous harmonized chorus and an instrumental break straight out of the woods. And when Chowning teams up with Steve Cash for the harp-and-yodelling, oboe-flavored fourstep "Gypsy Forest", hey - - go on and levitate. I do, every time I hear it. Cash's and Larry Lee's airy "If I Only Knew" should have been as big a hit as was "Jackie Blue". The CAR OVER THE LAKE ALBUM flags a bit as it goes on, though. The last half isn't quite as strong as the first but again, it's relative as all the songs are at least very, very good. The original LP closed with Chowning's stately, arresting elegy "Whippoorwill", a fitting closer if ever there were one. The three bonus tracks, originally a flexi released with the LP, aren't exactly essential and mitigate the closure. They hold up well enough on their own though, so it's nice to have them on CD. The admonishing text printed on the original flexi was somewhat apologetic regarding the quality of the songs and their putatively irreverent humor, but with people like Oscar Brand running around releasing humorously peurile albums since the late '40s, why bother apologizing? These guys were on a roll."

Car over the lake album - even the name's great.

Sean C. Lamkin | Normal, IL United States | 02/04/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Being 18, most would figure that i've never heard of these guys, but their wrong. i discovered this daredevil album along with about 4 more in my dad's old vinyl collection, and let me tell you, it blew me away. "if i only knew" is a great song, but "mr. powell" is the definate best on this album. This record is a must for any country-rock-bluegrass fan."