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Written
by Aaron Ellis, posted by blog admin
It’s
evident from the first minute of lead-in number “Promised Land” that Russ Still
and the Moonshiners have arrived to rock you.
The guitar based swagger collides into plucky bass playing, pocket
time-keeping, excellent lead/harmony vocals and a very lively bounce that could
see the band conquering a Charlie Daniels’ Family Jam or the toughest biker bar
in town. Ok, they aren’t a full on hard
rock band but Russ Still and his troops have enough riffs to put them at ease
on any bill they happen to land on.
The
album slinks into ballad mode during the early moments of “Long Way from Home,”
with the acoustic guitar setting the stage.
Utilizing varied songwriting, the band progresses the song into an
electric 2-step with plenty of boogie artillery to keep your eardrums
constantly engaged. “Glorine’s” is where
chorale style country harmonies merge with swinging rock n’ roll chops, the
guitars dealing out hands of tasty licks amongst all the aces of spades. It’s very much the old outlaw country sound
crossing over into guitar rock turf; sounding positively adept at both sides of
the coin flip. Every good southern album
with an electric guitar bent usually has a vast number with multiple crescendos
that flirt with rise/fall dynamics and Still
Cookin’ is no different thanks to “I Can’t” and its acoustic prowl going
into dramatic rock n’ roll fervor as it comes to a close.
If
the first half of the album is varied and eclectic, the second half sees the
band settling into a groove and sticking with it. This segment is nearly completely country
rock oriented with only “10, 000 Ways” breaking up the action in sweeps of
acoustic guitar, grand vocal harmonies, slow dance rhythms and electric guitar
action added in just the right spots for color.
The remaining tracks range from up-tempo grooves that go full bore with
the catchy vocal interplay like “Goin’ Fishin’,” “Juanita” and “Run Away,” to
the backwoods snarl of “Workin’ Class Hunter’s” heftier guitar meat and
stomping rhythms. All in all, Still Cookin’ is a darn good
country/hard rock album that is neither too hard, nor too country. It falls into some sameness here and there
but even that doesn’t really bring down the quality of the material, which is
always above par and in several instances truly outright
excellent.
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