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Rating: There are rock bands and musicians with a fate doomed to misfortune. The Four Horsemen can be considered cursed in the rock world. Their fate closely resembles that of their beloved Lynyrd Skynyrd. Like them, they played Southern rock and like them, their career was interrupted by sudden deaths that marked the premature end of their artistic journey (who knows, maybe they will reunite too...).
This "Gettin' pretty good... at barely gettin' by..." was their second full-length album following a debut mini-album in 1989 and the first album, the wonderful "Nobody said it was easy" from 1991, produced by Rick Rubin.
This second work sees important changes in the lineup of the Californian band, the defection of the reckless guitarist Haggis, founder of the band with a background in The Cult and Zodiac Mindwarp, and bassist Ben Pape replaced by Pharoah. Additionally, there's the defection of the drummer, the monumental Ken "Dimwit" Montgomery who died of an overdose a year before the release of the record, and the work and a song, the ballad "Song for absent friends", will be dedicated to him.
The band remains in the hands of the two founding members: Dave Lizmi guitarist who will play all the guitar parts and the great vocalist Frank C. Starr.
The raw sound of the debut, reminiscent of the best AC/DC and ZZ Top, gives way to a more mature and sophisticated southern rock without neglecting that energy that at the time made them, along with the Black Crowes, one of the best rock bands of the early nineties and especially among the few to be able to raise the confederate flag, increasingly in the hands of the old bands of the seventies.
The album opens with a cover of Rick Derringer, the groovy "Still alive and well". The title track is an example of the new direction taken by the band, fuller sounds with the introduction of piano and backing vocals, even female, as in the pure Lynyrd Skynyrd tradition. The rough voice of Frank C. Starr leads the way, accompanied by solos and a powerful rhythm section. "Drunk again" is the declaration of intent from our guys, imagine AC/DC with female backing vocals in the background. The roar of a car introduces the fast "Hot Rod", boogie rock'n'roll, while "Back in Business" is the continuation of their most famous song "Rockin' is ma' business" featured in the previous work. "Hit the road" is a fun song with acoustic and slide, sung and written with the alcohol level above average. Just like the reckless driver who a few months after the release of the album hit singer Frank C. Starr's motorcycle full-on. He slipped into a coma and didn't come out for almost four years of suffering and died in 1999.
This was also the end of a band that could have and was trying to rewrite the history of American southern music. They weren't the most original, but they had the attitude and guts to make it happen. Their name could have easily rivaled their friends, the Black Crowes, but instead, they remained a meteor with a cruel fate.
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