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Goose Creek Symphony - Welcome to Goose Creek

Goose Creek Symphony
A shorter entry this time. I figured since I've done a couple entries featuring Goose Creek Symphony I didn't need to rehash a lot of stuff and repeat myself. 

After I'd streamed the band's debut I was intrigued by the alchemy of hippy dippy rock and roots so I set out to find their albums and in short order I'd picked up the four records they released in the '70s. I didn't listen to them in chronological order I initially skipped this one in favour of hearing Words of Earnest because that one had "Mercedes Benz" and "Guitars Pickin', Fiddles Playin'" the song my aunt told me about.

I was flipping through my records, and I realized I'd not listened to all of my Goose Creek Symphony albums. I was in the mood for something a little different and I had an image in my head about Welcome to Goose Creek would sound like, and ... I ... was ... wrong. 

back cover
It wasn't a bad surprise at all ... just not what I was expecting. The album was a ripsnortin' hootenanny that was more roots and bluegrass with a little rock and roll thrown in here and there, but mostly this was blue grass album. The lone song that heakened to their debut was the first cut on the second side, "The Corn Won't Grow, So Rock and Roll" and it's a scorcher and clocks in at over eight minutes, and then things settle down back into the blue grass vein. Sadly the album I found didn't have any credits, but it looks like Charles Gearheart wrote a good chunk of the music, with Paul Howard Spradlin writing a couple.

It's still a lot of fun and there are still enough hint of rock and roll to make this a little different than a typical bluegrass album.

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