Lynyrd Skynyrd
1991

THE REVIEW

"This album was done for the love of music and for the love of those who are in Rock'n Roll Heaven".

Thus reads the passionate dedication found inside the booklet of "1991", an album that marks the return to the scene of Lynyrd Skynyrd, naturally referring to Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, and Cassie Gaines, the three members who tragically passed fourteen years earlier in the Gillsburg plane crash, and to Allen Collins, who was taken by pneumonia in 1990.

The reunion of the band actually dates back to 1987, and initially, the intention of the "new" Skynyrd was to tour for a series of tribute concerts playing only repertoire tracks: only later did they decide to return to the studio to record an album of new material. The daunting task of succeeding the never-too-mourned Ronnie Van Zant as singer and principal songwriter falls to the brother of the frontman, Johnny, with more than decent results, keeping in mind the impossible challenge of living up to the predecessor. The rest of the band consists almost entirely of historical members: we joyfully find Gary Rossington and Ed King on guitars, Leon Wilkeson on bass, Billy Powell on keyboards, and Artimus Pyle on drums.

The musical recipe of Lynyrd Skynyrd remains virtually unchanged: the choice that brought so much success in the past of using three guitars is confirmed, with the newcomer Randall Hall joining the aforementioned two, and the keyboards and female backing vocals still play a vital role, capable on several occasions of softening the atmosphere of the tracks. The sound remains firmly anchored to the tradition of Southern Rock, in continuity with everything the band had pursued until 1977. This results in particularly successful tracks like "Smokestack Lightning", energetic and engaging, as well as "Southern Women" and "It's a Killer". Naturally, ballads are not missing, as is Skynyrd's best tradition: "Pure & Simple" and "Mama (afraid to say goodbye)" succeed in their intent to move the listener, although certainly not at the practically unrepeatable levels of a "Freebird" or a "Tuesday's Gone."

The album is ultimately good, a particularly admirable initiative by great musicians eager to challenge themselves with a new and ambitious project. Of course, the magic of Lynyrd Skynyrd's early works is missing, but not the authenticity and the great desire to make music, always in remembrance of the friends who passed too soon to entertain the audiences in rock heaven.