Customer Reviews

New Life

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"A New Life" is the best album from the creative peak of the Marshall Tucker Band (1973-1978). Fans of The Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd will feel right at home from the first guitar lick on the title track. What sets this album a little higher than the rest is the uniformly excellent songwriting, which climaxes in the closing track "Fly Eagle Fly," which is among the best-ever pro-environment rock songs. If you are just starting your Tucker collection, start with this one.

A majestic, soaring masterpiece, loaded with timeless music that is sometimes mournful, at times whimsical, and always deeply heartfelt. Recorded in '74, this is, I believe, Marshall Tucker's second studio effort. All of the songwriting, singing and playing is absolutely stellar, highlighting the unique synthesis of country, blues, jazz and rock that was distinctively Marshall Tucker's own. Toy Caldwell's guitar work on this album, especially, is something of a landmark--his solos and fills on "A New Life" and "24 Hours At a Time" are wonders to behold, full of fire and an incredibly deep lyrical touch.

It saddens me that Southern Rock is often dismissed as nothing more than tacky background music for drunken rednecks. This album proves otherwise a million times over. There is a musical richness and emotional deepness offered here that deserves to be celebrated.

It amazes me that this recording only had two reviews written about it before my own. In my opinion, it is a landmark southern rock album. Marshall Tucker's debut album was great, but I feel this sophomore effort surpasses it. Every track on the album is great, but I feel four in general deserve special mention. The first track on the album, in my humble opinion the best Tucker song, is "A New Life". Doug Gray belts this one out as if his life depends on it. Track 3, "Blue Ridge Mountain Sky" also deserves special mention. The fiddle really gives this song something extra. To round out the four,"You Ain't Foolin' Me" and "24 Hours At A Time, are both classics. If you are a lover of southern rock, heck, rock in general, pick this one up. It easily stands with the best the Allman's, Skynyrd, or any other southern band has to offer.

A New Life, Blue Ridge Mountain Sky, You Ain't Foolin' Me, 24 Hours At A Time and Fly Eagle Fly is just the thing for a great long ride through the Blue Ridge Mountains. It's probably the best MTB album there is. Absolutely wonderful!

Like the "Brown Album" by The Band, MTB`s New Life is an album of uncompromising beauty. A combination of rural southern beauty, Americana, country blues, and their own brand of Jazz/ Rock fusion, this is, I believe, everything that The Marshall Tucker Band embodied. The title song is a beautiful tale of a person who having done his time dreaming of going home to a woman who always told him she would be there. There`s Blue Ridge Mountain Sky, sung with the feeling that can only come from living in a place where the skies are blue and life is slow and easy. There`s also good old rockers such Another Cruel Love and 24 Hours at a Time. A CD that will make you smile and shake your bottom.

This is probably one of the best southern rock albums ever created (i.m.h.o.). Moving original numbers with more meaning and soul than a album should be allowed to have. Each songs words paint a portrait within itself. With music that shows what accomplished musicians comprised this band. Highlights are "Too Stubborn"(country honky tonk bar blues), "Blue Ridge Mountain Sky"(makes Nickel Creek sound weak) , and "You Ain't Fooling Me"(soaring strong country blues).

Yes, this album is fine all the way through. No, it is not better than the self-titled debut, Searchin' for a Rainbow, or Carolina Dreams. For me, those albums have a cohesion that A New Life lacks. At times, it appears to be all over the map and some songs are just a lot better than others.

The title song is great and has that great Jerry Eubanks flute pouring out that ever-familiar sweet melody. "Southern Woman" plods along (not always a bad thing in my book) and is also a strong cut. The last of the great ones is "You Ain't Foolin' Me" which has Toy Caldwell at his best. The remaining songs are just okay IMO. "Too Stubborn" is a slowed down juke-boxer (the kind that may sit in country bars anyway) and "Another Cruel Love" relies to heavily on horns that only seem to crowd out the rest of the song. "24 Hours at a Time" may be the best of the weakest and "Blue Ridge Mountain Sky" and "Fly Eagle Fly" have Toy Caldwell on vocals, with so-so results.

This is most certainly an album worth having but be sure to look for the albums previously mentioned above.