By: David Schultz

Playing before a live audience is where The Black Crowes have always been at home. It’s that intangible part of their aura that makes their recently released Before The Frost . . . Until The Freeze sound like nothing they’ve ever released. Culled from five days of performances at Levon Helm’s studio in Woodstock, New York, the same locale for the beloved drummer’s Midnight Rambles, the Crowes recorded enough material for two albums. Rather than have the added tracks go the way of The Band, their lost album that exists primarily in bootleg form, the Crowes haven’t made it all that hard for anyone purchasing Before The Frost to get Until The Freeze for free.

Anyone who’s been to one Crowes show always returns for more; unless you have an aversion to free-spirited events where songs often follow their own muse, the Crowes deliver. On Before The Frost, the Crowes second album with North Mississippi Allstar Luther Dickinson in the fold, they come the closest to capturing their live sound. On songs like “Been A Long Time (Waiting On Love),” “Make Glad” and “A Train Still Makes A Lonely Sound,” the Crowes let the music subsume them, letting Dickinson’s slide guitar add a surfeit of gritty and sultry nuances. Their raw sound has always drawn favorable comparisons to Rod Stewart & The Small Faces and, for the most part, Before The Frost sounds like your typical Crowes album, albeit one where they are on fire. While emulating early Rod Stewart has its pros and cons, drawing inspiration from his Blondes Have More Fun disco phase is a head scratcher. Dickinson’s anachronistic guitar work notwithstanding, “I Ain’t Hidin,” conjures up the coke-addled disco era with an unironic descent into “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” territory. It’s either the bravest song the Crowes have recorded or their most insipid.

The bonus album is the true revelation. Featuring heavy contributions from Larry Campbell on fiddle and mandolin, Until The Freeze finds the Crowes in a state that would make the most relaxed yogi seem tense. As if sitting around a campfire in the wee hours of the morning under a cloudy, smoky haze, the music spills forth in a rustic mélange. You can forgive the repetition of the communal “song we all can sing along” theme of “Aimless Peacock” in “Shady Grove,” and get past the fact that “Lady Of Avenue A” is more of a wander-the-city-streets-at-3:00 a.m.song because they are hypnotically enveloping and it’s the most exciting the Crowes have felt since Shake Your Money Maker. If the spirit of The Band still lives in Levon’s barn, the Crowes have channeled it here.

Labels: The Black Crowes