38 Special
Tour de Force

This group from Florida is among my favorites in the southern rock scene: their melodic blues rock, balanced, very well produced, at some point (in the eighties, for instance with this album) managed to break out of its narrow genre confines and reach a more general and less specialized or demanding audience, thanks to the accessibility of certain choruses and the simplicity of the lyrics. However, from the very beginning, I was immediately struck by the excellent quality of their musical offering and I eagerly explored their repertoire further, with the personal result that a good handful of their songs will remain deep in my heart.

Unlike many of their peers from the same musical lineage, typically engaged in characterizations or real excesses of various kinds (extremely long psychedelic improvisations in the case of the Allman Brothers, mile-long battles between lead guitars in Lynyrd Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet, raw and streetwise lyrics for Blackfoot and again Lynyrd Skynyrd, diversions into soul and rhythm&blues for Wet Willie...) they chose, from the outset and throughout their career, to focus on compactness and songwriting, on linearity and a dash of healthy catchiness, aiming to create good guitar riffs and keep the rhythm high, yet simultaneously maintaining a round and clean sound, without exaggerating in any direction: a kind of mortal sin for a certain type of music lovers, especially those more sensationalist, imaginative, and snobbish fringes, always in search of the new, the extreme, the dangerous, the depressive...

In short, these guys play classic and ultra-American rock (according to their own style and sensibility, distinctly recognizable for those who follow the genre), without messages, but for the pleasure of playing, for the ancestral enjoyment that music can bring with a good rhythm, loud volume, and marked melody. The lyrics are essentially there just to give the vocals something to do, resulting in a music that is truly engaging, because it's played with conviction and produced with great professionalism. The risk is not to please anyone (especially in our parts): the metalhead or punk rocker or any other kind of noisy music lover will want to hear other kinds of sonic and textual abrasions; the pop fan or hyper-romantic will, on the contrary, be disturbed by the powerful insistence of the (two) guitars and the determined pounding of the (two!) drums, and so on.

The six-piece of 38 Special therefore includes double drums and double guitars, but also double vocalist because one of the guitarists, Don Barnes, alternates his voice, between one song and another and sometimes within the same one, with that of the frontman in charge Donnie Van Zant. He is none other than one of the brothers of the late Ronnie, the charismatic leader of Lynyrd Skynyrd, but not to be confused with the third brother Johnny, who actually took Ronnie's place in the famous group (another liaison between the two bands is represented by bassist Larry Junstrom, a founding member of Skynyrd in the late sixties, who joined 38 Special around the time of the third album, roughly in 1979).

The band is undoubtedly led by the two guitarists: Barnes is more of a composer and riff creator, while his colleague Jeff Carlisi has a more piercing and exciting solo style. It's not easy to distinguish who plays what since their two instruments are very close in tone and very well blended in the mix. The voices of Barnes and Van Zant are also quite similar, favoring the same tonalities: let's say the guitarist is more heartfelt and aggressive, more rock, while Donnie is smoother and more laid-back, more blues, more southern.

The quality remains consistent in all nine tracks that make up this album: there is no masterpiece nor do there seem to be any fillers. Many will enjoy the infectious rock'n'rollin' of the fast "Twentieth Century Fox" the most, featuring Carlisi taking center stage as he bombards left and right with excellent solos, while the two singers continually swap the lead role. Others will be conquered by the sturdy and extremely muted riff of "Back Where You Belong", composed by the little-known Canadian songwriter Gary O'Connor and brought to life by Barnes' booming voice. Others will opt for the more jazzy and laid-back atmospheres of "Long Distance Affair", or the rock-pop compactness and catchiness of the album opener "If I'd Been The One", or finally the sky-high volumes of "Undercover Lover", placed at the end.

Good genre album, this sixth of their career (1984), although not the best in my opinion (I reserve this judgment for the fourth in the series, that "Wild Eyed Southern Boys" released three years earlier). Beautiful, as can be seen, the cover.