Crawler - Snake, Rattle and Roll

I picked this up because it looked like an interesting album. The back credits caught my attention: Produced by Gary Lyons, mastered by George Marino and recorded at the legendary Caribou Ranch in Colorado. I figured the album would lean one of two ways - a sucky late '70s Dan Fogelberg type album, or a straight ahead boogie woogie rock and roll album with a bit of twang. Guitarist Geoff Whitehorn was credited with playing "fiddle" so I figured that plaid jacket was appropriate.

The anticipation of dropping the needle and those first moments of dead space are so good ... "Sail On" opens the album and the brief harmonic and sliding bass note is quickly followed by thick crunchy power chords that then give way to an infectious groove that has a lot of bounce and swing - in short swagger. The vocal harmonies are great and the interplay between the guitars and keyboards is simply awesome.

I haven't had a truly great holy shit moment for a while. This was so good. Musically the guys weren't doing anything that hadn't been done before and vocalist Terry Wilson-Slesser had one of those fantastic, but somewhat generic voices that had me wondering who he sounded like on various tracks. That's not a shot, the guy could sing. This was straight on blues based rock that meshed some funk elements and intricate backing vocals. It was so good and just resonated with me.

I was really drawn to guitarist Geoff Whitehorn. Great tone and man, the guy played right in the pocket. Speaking of the pocket, drummer Tony Braunagel and bassist Terry Wilson (yeah what were the chances of having more than one Terry in a band, let alone another Terry Wilson?) were awesome. The drums were fat and so crisp. Sprinkle on top the keyboard textures of John "Rabbit " Bundrick and everything worked in unison.

Now I was curious, who were these guys and how come I'm just hearing about them now? Turns out the seeds of the band were first planted with former Free guitarist Paul Kossoff when all of the guys had at one point been in Back Street Crawler who had released two albums on Atlantic Records in 1975, and 1976. When Paul passed away the band essentially ended (there was some ensuing drama I'm sure, but you can do a wiki search as easily as I can). After recruiting Geoff Whitehorn the band would hire new management (I wonder if "Where is the Money" was directed at their old management and label?) and would be signed to Epic.

Man, I wonder what the pressure must have been like for Geoff trying to step into Paul's shoes? I suspect at first the idea was to merely continue as Back Street Crawler ... I don't know enough about Paul, other than the songs I've heard on the radio by Free. Snake, Rattle and Roll was a greenfield for me, and I had no baggage or expectations. For me it was Geoff who stood out on the album, and his playing was just so good. Heck, his solo on "Liar" is jaw dropping (it's the song that happened to be playing as I jotted down this paragraph ... the solo on the next song "One Way Street" that closes the album is even better). It's not the only highlight on the record, and I have to remind myself that this is just where I'm coming in, there was the band's debut so who knows what came before? I'm going to find out. Sadly Crawler's debut isn't out there to stream.

They would release Crawler in 1977, and then a year later Snake, Rattle and Roll in 1978 which would be the last studio album by the band. Which was too bad, but in a way it sort of made sense. As good as this was the times were a changing and rock was going to undergo a pretty significant transformation and more than a few really good bands wouldn't make it.

With the benefit of hindsight I get to listen to this with fresh ears and wonder what could have been, even if only for a little while.

On the plus side I have some new albums on my wish list.