Outlaws
Hurry Sundown

The five southern Americans from Florida (Tampa) released their third album in 1977, and there are several changes compared to the past.

The first two works were entirely similar: same lineup and producer, same recording studios, and therefore also the same sounds and mixes; even the same artist to design the cover and even the same consistent arrangement of instruments in the stereo image, with the three guitarists, one on the left (Thomasson), one in the center (Paul), and the last one on the right (Jones).

Here, however, the variations begin, which will eventually turn out to be many in the long and somewhat troubled history of the band. First, there's a new bassist, and it's not a step forward: the bland Harvey Dalton Arnold (also a composer and singer, with a voice like Jackson Browne) takes the place of founder Frank O'Keefe, who was tougher but unfortunately forced to throw in the towel due to a broken neck in an accident.

The Outlaws then change producer, placing themselves in the hands of Bill Szymczyk, Joe Walsh’s trusted man and later of the Eagles. The results are immediate: greater care and presence of harmonies, rounder and more reverberated sounds... in short, a more polished and "elegant" aspect is given to their southern rock.

This is the album where Billy Jones' talent shines fully, a skilled and unhappy (suicidal, several years later) guitarist and singer, who possessed the best melodic talent among the group's four composers. His two exclusive compositions (there's a third one together with Thomasson) are the best episodes of the bunch. His high and velvety voice, somewhat like Neil Young but... more in tune, travels great both in the fast melodic rock "Holiday" and in the ballad "Night Wines," two gems, full of good guitars, inspired solos, challenging vocal lines, resonant arpeggios.

The absolute peak of the album in terms of emotion is precisely the passage in "Night Wines" between Thomasson's agile and sharp solo Stratocaster and Jones's "big" and saturated, heavily distorted Les Paul: an exchange of solos among the most successful in rock history, as far as I'm concerned.

"Holiday," on the other hand, is filled, alternating with the beautiful vocal line of the author Jones, with the proverbial, rapid solos of Thomasson, featuring an exciting crunchy and precise sound. Really, the whole album shines with the brilliant evolutions on the black Fender of this lamented hero of the instrument that belonged to Hendrix, to Harrison, to Moore, to Gallagher and still serves masters like Gilmour, Blackmore, Beck, Trower, Townshend.

Having said that the two contributions of the newcomer Arnold are both bland, the first "Hearin’ My Heart Talkin’" a mellow bluegrass and the second "Cold and Lonesome" already better, lively but anyway a schoolbook country rock, other good stuff is instead found in the tracks from the pen of future Lynyrd Skynyrd Hughie Thomasson.

In particular, the one that titles the work, always present from '77 on in their concerts, first supported by a double solo obligato envying Wishbone Ash and then by an easy but sublimely catchy chorus.

Then there's the decent long track, co-composed with Jones, concluding the album, bipartite a bit in a progressive manner because to the very country rock beginnings seasoned with steel guitar follows an ending first arpeggiated with an almost... Beatles flavor, which then doubles the time and accelerates to unleash the two solo guitars, both alone and together.

The contributions of the third (only rhythm) guitarist Henry Paul are in chiaroscuro: one very good that is the opening "Gunsmoke," supported by a sumptuous electro-acoustic riff and seasoned with the usual unattainable solo of Thomasson, which roams mercilessly every time Paul shuts up. "Heavenly Blues," on the other hand, apart from not having even a hint of blues being pure country rock, is really impossible to memorize as much as it is stereotyped.

Finally, there is also a bland cover still country rock, titled "Hearin’ My Heart Talkin’," entirely negligible, further lowering the average quality of the album, which therefore contains four excellent tracks, another couple notable, and two or three unforgettable fillers.

4 stars here to the indomitable Outlaws, still touring the USA after yet another reformation.