The Marshall Tucker Band: New Life - 1974

This second release was slightly more country than the previous album had been. The "progressive" thing gives way to a more defined rock sound too, along with some jazzy influences, despite the obviously prog-inspired cover!

This is perfectly represented by the muscular rock of the opener, A New Life, a track that nevertheless still manages to reach nearly seven minutes. That old experimental/workout urge is obviously still there. 

A really infectious bassline and slow rhythm underpins the excellent Southern Woman, another lengthy track. It sounds like a more melodious, less down 'n' dirty Lynyrd Skynyrd. Mid-track the band launch into a distinctly jazz groove, featuring some highly impressive saxophone and a great jazz guitar solo. This group had a lot of strings to its collective bow. They were definitely not in the stereotypical country rock pigeonhole. How many other country rock bands put out stuff as inventively different as this? Not many, if any. 

A very Pure Prairie League/Firefall-style lively, tuneful country sound is delivered on the enjoyable breeze of Blue Ridge Mountain Sky. Slow country blues arrives on the equally pleasurable Too Stubborn. 

You would have thought the group had gone all big band with the jaunty brassy intro to Another Cruel Love, a track that doesn't let up from its first few beats. It certainly rocks strongly and the brassy vibe puts me in mind of Van Morrison. 

You Ain't Foolin' Me displays that ability to lay down a lengthy rock workout once more. They really are a country band like no other. Of course, there are hints of many other artists in their sound, but they also have a clear uniqueness, something that really is all of their own. Check out that jazzy saxophone break mid-song for starters. Some of Bruce Hornsby's material in the nineties reminds me of this number as well. Was he listening to this? I reckon so. 

24 Hours At A Time is pure mid-seventies country rock and most fine-soundin' it is too. Very representative of its era. Great guitar near the end as well. The album ends with possibly the most country number in the grandly melodious Fly Eagle Fly. 

Just as the debut album had been this was a most impressive and inventive offering. Give it a listen.  

I have sampled the next four albums too -

Searchin' For A Rainbow - 1975 

Long Hard Ride - 1976 

Carolina Dreams - 1977 

Together Forever - 1978

These albums progress from a clear, essential country sound, such as features on the excellent Searchin' For A Rainbow and Long Hard Ride to a more commercially-oriented country pop approach as the seventies progressed. Other country bands such as Pure Prairie League and Firefall tended to follow this path too, as did The Doobie Brothers. It seemed that by 1977-78 going more mainstream was the thing to do. Doing so actually gained the group their first hit in 1977's catchy and breezy Heard It In A Love Song. The melodic and attractive flute employed in the song puts me in mind of the sound Bob Dylan used a year later in his Live At Budokan show (played there by Steve Douglas).

I really, really like the über-cool, immaculately-played grooves of the Searchin' For A Rainbow album but nothing on it screams out at me, begging to be analysed, despite the jazzy, sometimes even Doobie Brothers/Little Feat funky feel of some of it. In some ways that is a shame but in other ways it sort of shows that the album has done its job as something to be consumed as a whole - a collective feeling as opposed to individual song-by-song descriptions. Indeed, I can say that about all these albums. I like all of them but sometimes one can over-review. Just sit back and listen the music, eh?