:: The Black Crowes - Croweology

The Black Crowes

After a successful five year run since their reformation in 2002, classic rock ‘n’ roll act The Black Crowes have once again decided to take an indefinite hiatus at the end of the year following the completion of their current ‘Say Goodnight To The Bad Guys’ tour. As a parting gift, the Atlanta based outfit have decided to put together something special for fans in the form of their latest double album effort ‘Croweology’. In celebration of their twenty years together, The Black Crowes have decided to re-record twenty tracks selected from their vast back catalogue in acoustic form. While the idea of re-working old favourites into the acoustic form isn’t anything new, and more often the newly acoustic renditions of the classics generally get lost in the translation, it has to be said that on ‘Croweology’, The Black Crowes have genuinely managed to achieve where many failed – and that is make something completely new out of something old.

Disc one starts out - naturally enough - at the start, with the group putting in a fairly faithful rendition of their breakthrough hit single ‘Jealous Again’. Not much in the way of changes has been made to the song, but all that shifts with ‘Share The Ride’. Although backed by a drum machine and propelled continuously with hand-claps throughout, this re-invented version doesn’t sound out of place, and inevitably is nothing short of a fun listen. Familiar rock favourites ‘Remedy’ and ‘Hotel Illness’ haven’t been altered too much, with only the instrumentation toned down to a raucous bar band with their electric guitars traded in for acoustics instead, while the gospel influences within ‘Soul Singing’ have been given an even greater emphasis on the vocal front. The beautiful ‘Non-Fiction’, the laid back bliss of ‘Ballad In Urgency’ and ‘Wiser Time’ are expanded beyond their standard formats with the extended jam sessions highlighting the dynamics within the current line-up, while the Robinson brothers’ effort ‘Cold Boy Smile’ and ‘Under A Mountain’ finish out the disc.

Disc two starts off in a similar fashion, with the classic ‘She Talks To Angels’ given a run through, with only the addition of country sounding violins separating it from its original form. The up-lifting ‘Morning Song’ loses nothing of its potency over the original, with the extended fretwork and the gospel choir making up for the absence of its familiar electrified framework, while the blues-like grooving swagger of ‘Downtown Money Waster’ is only given greater exposure with this new recording. ‘Good Friday’, ‘Welcome To The Good Times’ and ‘Sister Luck’ haven’t been altered that much from what many would already be familiar with, while ‘Thorn In My Pride’ and ‘Bad Luck Blue Eyes Goodbye’ have been given a bit of a stretching out on the instrumental sections, without sounding overly long or padded out with filler moments. Finishing up the second disc is a reworked ‘Girl From A Pawnshop’ in country form, and a glorious cover of Gram Parson’s ‘She’. With the band taking a break from the scene, it would have been quite easy of them to do something nostalgic, such as release a new greatest hits package. But instead, The Black Crowes decided to do something a little different, and give something back to the fans. Some will view ‘Croweology’ as a new album, while some will see it as an acoustic best-of set. But almost all fans will see this release as something special, and a more than fitting gift to followers until the band inevitably return.