Search - Molly Hatchet :: Southern Rock Masters

Molly Hatchet is best covering Molly Hatchet...

Baberufus | West Jordan, UT USA | 05/16/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this album mainly on faith, thinking, "OK, I like all the original versions of the songs they recorded for this, let's hear them Molly Hatchet style!" It's OK, but on this CD it appears that the band was trying to record faithful reproductions in the style of the original artists, for the most part. For a cover band, they did a good job here. However, this is Molly Hatchet!--a band with its own considerable power, legacy and individual style of music. I don't want to hear them play watered down versions of the styles of the original artists, I want to hear them approach these songs in their own style! Some of these songs shouldn't have been considered, IMO. Desperado, for one. C'mon guys. You're not a ballad band. Sharp Dressed Man--OK, that's more in their ballpark. But instead of taking Billy Gibbons' licks to another level with more power chords and dual leads or whatever, they're just trying to sound like ZZ Top. And it's good, but hey, if I want to listen to a ZZ Top song played in the style of ZZ Top, I'd rather listen to ZZ Top doing it!



So overall, a disappointment. A cool idea, kind of like what Guns 'n' Roses did with the Spaghetti Incident, but on this CD I thought the Hatchet should have taken these songs and adapt them more to their own style."

Reviewed from the perspective of a Hatchet fanatic

Scott Waters | New Mexico, USA | 10/20/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I am about as big of a Molly Hatchet fan as they come. As such, it was a no brainer that I run out and pick up this album of covers. Hatchet has always done a great job with covers. Their cover of "Dreams I'll Never See" from their first album is a classic. They've been doing "Mississippi Queen" live for decades. With "Southern Rock Masters" Hlubek, McCormick and Ingram revisit some of their favorite classic rock songs. However, as with any album of this nature there are some songs that are better than others.



I've never been a big fan of the Eagles, but any classic rock fan worth his vinyl collection is familiar with "Deperado". Hatchet does a commendable job here with Phil McCormick giving an exceptional vocal performance. He also does a phenomenal job on the Stones "Wild Horses" and the Allman Brothers "Melissa". I am a huge Thin Lizzy fan, so one of my favorite bands doing a cover of one of my other favorite bands is awesome. Oddly enough I felt that Hatchet's cover of "The Boys Are Back In Town" was decent, but not one of the better tracks on the album. Unlike a song like "Dreams I'll Never See" in which Molly Hatchet just owns, with "The Boys Are Back in Town" they seem to be trying too hard to stay faithful to the original recording and don't give it a full blown Molly Hatchet treatment. I felt the same way about "Bad to the Bone", although I actually did enjoy this song quite a bit. The addition of horns was a good idea. The biggest disappointment was "Mississippi Queen". Perhaps I am just use to hearing the cover they did with Ted Nugent on Volunteer Jam VII, but this version seems a little weak in comparison. I also think think this song doesn't feature the strongest vocal performance on the album. "Tumbling Dice" on the other hand is a killer cover, although one that had already been done on their 2001 release "Kingdom of XII".



With the title being "Southern Rock Masters" I had hoped that Hatchet would cover some other Southern bands like The Outlaws, Blackfoot or Charlie Daniels Band, especially since Hatchet has worked with Charlie Daniels in the not so distant past. It's a bit disappointing that two Rolling Stones tracks were included and nothing from Lynyrd Skynyrd.



The last three tracks are live versions of Molly Hatchet classics, all taken from the band's recent live album "Flirtin' With Disaster-Live". I suppose these were added on to help promote that album. I certainly don't mind having them tacked on at the end, but they are somewhat unnecessary for the Hatchet fan that already owns that live album. The CD also came with a small button featuring the cover art from "Flirtin' With Disaster-Live", giving further promotion for that live album.



3.5/5 stars

(reprinted from NoLifeTilMetal.com)"

Molly didnt hatchet this cd

Howard Teitel | nyc | 03/27/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"being a fan of molly hatchet is was excited to recieve this cd and after a wait is did understand other review stating that the songs are done note by note with know molly hatchet flavor, but still the songs soun d good



fav are boys are back in town(the main reason ii brought thecd)

zz tops sharp dressed man and mountains mississippe queen



maybe replacing desparado and requila sunrise with songs by the allman brother or iutlaws etc etc would have been better even though they did melissa maybe whipping post or one way out would have been better"