Search - Pickin' on Lynyrd Skynyrd :: Pickin' on Lynyrd Skynyrd

Dobro Heaven

grego | Enumclaw, Wa USA | 09/27/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Very good from start to finish... and WOW... what a finish! An epic 9-minute banjo-driven version of "Freebird" with the melody hammered home by a wailing fiddle and a honking harmonica. The pickers on this CD sound like they're real Skynyrd fans, not just guys out to make a profit off of somebody else's music. They don't just cover the songs, they respectfully pay homage to them.

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This is evident in the standout arrangements, where 3 and sometimes 4 instruments share the task of fleshing out the melody of each song. For example, in "That Smell," the melody is given to us with fiddle, dobro and mandolin, not all 3 instruments at once, but alternating from one to the other at unexpected and unpredictable moments. What makes these songs sound so fresh even though they're decades old, is that we never know from moment to moment which instrument is going to take the lead.

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One minute it's a mournful dobro or steel guitar like on "Tuesday's Gone," the next minute it's a sizzling telecaster and sax like on "I Know a Little." On "Saturday Night Special," the churning, circular rhythm of the song is driven home by the banjo, while the melody on top is played by harmonica, acoustic guitar and telecaster.

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"Don't Ask Me No Questions" starts out with a fast banjo, then a sizzling acoustic guitar takes over, and next we hear a deep-toned fiddle with the kind of tone that makes you say, "God I love the sound of the fiddle when it's played right."

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Even though drums are mostly absent, and vocals are totally absent, the GROOVE is still here. There are no liberties taken with the tempos... the tempos are exactly like the original Skynyrd songs.

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I like the tasty piano fills on songs like "That Smell," and the fact that both mandolin and dobro are heard in almost every song in interesting and unexpected ways. Almost certainly they saved the best for last with "Freebird." I'll bet when you hear it you put the CD player on "repeat." It's an acoustic FEAST for the ears and something you'll want to hear again and again. Whoa... bluegrass has never boogied like this before!"

YAWN. This is a sleeper.

L. Lawhead | SW Illinois | 08/10/2002

(2 out of 5 stars)

"WOW! I was really excited when I heard this record was out! I'm a huge Lynyrd Skynyrd fan, and also a fan of bluegrass music.... I figured this would be a PERFECT combination, so I bought it ASAP. And really, it's not horrible, it's just dull. This sounds like a bunch of session musicians playing for scale, no heart, no passion. Nothing interesting or unique about the arrangements. To borrow from Skynyrd's album title, this is Nothin' Fancy. It makes ok background music, plesant enough to play in our retail store.... THAT's disappointing in itself."