Before an intimate audience of die-hard fans at Levon Helm's barn in Woodstock, New York earlier this year, The Black Crowes recorded new material for what would become Before The Frost... and its free-download partner, Until The Freeze. The former, an 11-song set of swaggering Southern Blues rockers, is easily the finest and most confidently triumphant Crowes release since Amorica. The latter... well that's just country-infused icing on the cake.
After two decades of aspiring to be considered and respected on the same frequency of bayou-blues gurus Lynyrd Skynyrd and their ilk, leaning heavily into the mid-eighties honky soul attitude of Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Black Crowes have at long last reached the peak of their mountain as veteran road hounds.
For the first time in 15 years, the band sounds entirely comfortable in its own skin. From enthusiastic ragtime-soul opener "Good Morning Captain" to the snotty, disco-tinged Stones-esque single "I Ain't Hiding" (listen), there's a fifth-element force that lifts these new songs to more than the live party jams they were recorded as. The entire album rubs a gritty sweet spot in all the right ways, a feat the Crowes have been circling their entire careers.
"Been A Long Time (Waiting On Love)" is a looming force of a deceptively back-leaning groove, with Robinson's off-time vocal shuffle making the melody damn near irresistible. The track is a perfect example of the leap the band has taken since last year's Warpaint, a respectable release, but one that didn't possess the cohesive quality of their current offering. The additions of Luther Dickinson on guitar and Adam MacDougall on keys have given the Crowes a new lease on jamming, as evidenced here, and the additions could very well have saved the band's sound entirely from the bowels of doomed repetition most bands find themselves locked into two decades into their career. There's true fire to be found in the mid-song jam, and when the crowd cheers at the end of nearly eight minutes' worth of song, it's hard not to clap along.
There's little argument in the CSN aspirations of the gorgeous acoustic jam "What Is Home," but if the song doesn't lift your heart, you simply don't have one. The song marks the lead-vocal Black Crowes debut of Rich Robinson, and the context is perfect. Supplemented by harmonies from bassist Sven Pipien and MacDougall, the typically less-flamboyant of the Robinson brothers matches his melody to the guitar line in the verse, building to the sweet release of the chorus.
The free download of Until The Freeze won't strike all Crowes fans the same; those not partial to country will have a hard time getting through twangy, old-country tracks like "Garden Gate," "Roll Old Jeremiah" or "So Many Times". The songs are as much a tribute to real country as Jack White has been increasingly serving to Delta Blues over the years. It's not a gimmick, a one-off way of throwing fans a curveball; this music is in their blood, as true to their roots as anything they've laid on wax before.
Want to know what's wrong with country music these days? Listen to Appaloosa or Until The Freeze track Greenhorn, and try to bottle the soul-strumming balladry you find. You'd be a millionaire in no time - or certainly, at least, the recipient of innumerable sexual offers from today's country heavyweights in exchange for the spark that sets the Crowes alight. There's an effortless, honest charm that serves as a foundation for the bulk of Until The Freeze, and it takes a moment to adjust to, in the country context of being hammered with the "Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy" type of country detritus.
There's a full-band harmony at the onset of "Greenhorn" that grabs the heart, but again, if you're not in a country kind of mood, your patience will be tested. Nevertheless, the sweetly-sad guitar strums have a gravity that doesn't prepare you for the up-step turn of the chorus, but it makes for a great morning-sunshine song.
After the philosophical closer "Fork In The River," there's a void left within, like the feeling you get when dear old friends are leaving after a night of memory walking and hard drinking. It's the mark of a great album, that feeling.
