Rating: 4/5
Verdict: Unplugged but still crackling with electricity
Two decades ago when the Black Crowes launched their career with the swaggering Shake Your Money Maker, they came off as a version of Rod Stewart and the Faces with a little of the Allman Brothers thrown in: theirs was party-style rhythm 'n' booze played out in front of a marijuana leaf banner.
But more recently - with vocalist Chris Robinson back after some solo years - they retooled their sound down for last year's wonderful, live-in-the-studio acoustic album Before the Frost where they sounded more like the Band with Keith Richards sitting in.
To celebrate their 20th anniversary, they offer a double album of acoustic versions of some of their most memorable songs (Remedy, She Talks to Angels, Thorn in My Pride, Good Friday and others), which is how they are opening shows on their current tour.
Their often ramshackle and enjoyable electric persona meant some of their best songs sounded shapeless, but here stripped right back (with guest Donny Herron on pedal steel, banjo and fiddle) they have that barnyard appeal of Before the Frost.
They still manage to rock hard when required - even though they sound like they're sitting down - and given the line-up changes, indifferent middle-year albums and threats of implosion, the Black Crowes sound like a band reinvented, and the better for it.
- TimeOut
