Ever since The Black Crowes released their last album back in 2009 I’ve been waiting for this album, the only surprise I guess it that it’s come not from The Black Crowes but from the band Rich Robinson molded from their ashes – The Magpie Salute.
Thinking back you could say that The Black Crowes were a band that I’ve always been waiting for and never gave up on. From the first time I heard their debut album on February 13th 1990 and the first time I saw them live on 13th June 1990 I wanted more, and over the years I eventually managed to see them on four continents a total of 17 times.
Of course nothing was quite like those early days and those first four albums that hit regularly every two years remain a high watermark for me. Then things started to slowly unravel – first it was personnel changes with Marc Ford and Johnny Colt leaving for very different reasons, and then the saga of the still unreleased fifth recording ‘Band’ being rejected by the label and effectively delaying the arrival of album number 5.
Initially The Black Crowes came across as that perfect melting pot of influences – The Faces, The Rolling Stones, The Allman Brothers and Aerosmith to name just a few, but like any great band they of course spread their metaphorical wings and embraced more Soul, more Southern Rock and finally mellower Americana fare.
Now after reformation, hiatus and some hard words between brothers it seems that The Black Crowes are finally no more and in their wake we have two very different beasts – singer Chris Robinson’s mellower ‘Brotherhood’ who already have five albums under their belts and Rich’s The Magpie Salute who just dropped their first after Rich’s four solo albums and the Hookah Brown project that burned briefly between the Crowes first ‘hiatus’ in 2001 and 2003. It was in that band of course that Rich first played with The Magpie Salute’s vocalist John Hogg.
Now we’re up to date where do we start? Well if I was forced to sum it all up I’d say that The Magpie Salute is the real sonic successor to The Black Crowes – a band that feels like it’s cut from that same cloth and indeed with both former Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford and bassist Sven Pipien on board you could say what would you expect?
The difference here is the growth of all of those musicians over the years and the addition of the wonderful multi-instrumentalist and song-writer John Hogg as well as keyboardist Matt Slocum (who replaces the sadly departed Eddie Harsch who died in 2016 when the band as just coming together), drummer Joe Magistro, as well as vocalists Adrien Reju and Katrine Ottosen from Robinson’s solo band. Put all that together and you have a real melting pot.
As an album ‘High Water I’ is one of the finest I’ve heard in years and for me at least it far eclipses the final two releases The Black Crowes mustered. Back comes the Rock and back comes the Soul, but it’s more than just that, these guys sound like they mean every word. It’s an album to savour, to relish and to lose yourself in. It’s an album to be experienced not just heard, so hold on tight…
Opening with the wonderful ‘Mary the Gypsy’ The Magpie Salute put their best collective feet forward delivering a smouldering retro rocker to kick start what turns out to be a benchmark for organic and soulful Rock music. And if you wondered ‘what else?’ you’re then almost immediately introduced to the softer side of the band and the even sweeter harmonies of the title track which crashes in like soft shadows under a California sun. It’s a combination that almost encapsulates the feel of the whole album but boy is there more to discover! And it’s in these shades and shadows and subtleties and contrasts that you find yourself diving into an album of real warmth and no little love.
As well as putting together a band of real substance, Rich too has rediscovered his perfect foil in Marc Ford and in vocalist John Hogg he has found a voice that perfectly unfolds these treasures. ‘Send Me an Omen’ showcases what Ford brings perhaps better than any other song here, it’s a rocker that takes me right back to The Black Crowes ‘Southern Harmony’ record and it doesn’t miss a beat with Hogg wailing like a banshee and those sweet soulful backing harmonies cutting through the grit and the grease.
‘For the Wind’ too sounds like an echo from the glory days – and Ford again delivers with a guitar line that is more than memorable, wringing wet with soul and after the delicate opening it bursts wide open and cranks to ’11’ before falling back to those sweet sounds. This is a song that for me takes the Crowes sound and runs with it rattling the windows and warming the soul.. It’s huge.
‘Sister Moon’ the single, is similarly impressive – mellow and measured, yearning and searching but here strangely timeless and fresh and unlike anything the Crowes would have laid down, and there in a song you have the magic of The Magpie Salute – echoes of a band you loved but more, far more.
‘Color Blind’ takes us to the half way mark with a song that perhaps shows off John Hogg’s considerable talents the most. Languid and loose, starting simply with just voice and guitar it bursts with real passion and carries a message of harmony that we all should live by. It’s not unfamiliar ground lyrically, it’s not a story we haven’t heard before but here it seems starkly relevant and in the music that swirls around the message it seems all the more poignant. If I had to pick a highlight then this simple song might just be it.
Side 2 (please excuse me that ancient phrase, but it just seems so right here) opens with ‘Take It All’ which drips with the blues and raw rock and roll that almost makes it feel like an outtake from The Crowes first outing ‘Shake Your Moneymaker.’ To be honest when I first heard it I actually thought it may be from those original sessions it captures the raw feel so completely.
‘Walk on Water’ that follows is simply sublime, can I just say it’s a song that simply makes me happy? It’s the sort of song I just want you to hear rather than me tell you about. A song that touches me, a song that is stark and simple and direct and beautiful. I’ll leave it hanging there…
And then comes ‘Hand in Hand’ which takes you way back in time with it’s old-time construction, slide guitar and good time country blues feel. It’s a song that you might see as throw-away in the selection on offer here, but it is an essential part of the ‘whole’ and deserves it’s place here.
‘You Found Me’ paces similar territory and starts with a lilting country strum and goes on to explore that essential side of the band. The startling thing for me is that it’s better than any of the Americana sidesteps The Crowes took on their final albums and here its a good as anything you’ll hear in the genre today.
The album closes as strongly as it began with two songs that may just be up there with my favourites. First comes the bluesy cool and swagger of ‘Can You See’ that feels like an American take on Free or Led Zeppelin the British band that laid down the markers for this kind of music. It then slides seamlessly into a Dylan meets the Crowes chorus that just sticks like good gravy to a rare steak.
Final track ‘Open Up’ may just be the defining moment for me that elevates this album from damned good to absolutely essential. It’s a song that shows an understanding of what makes music move people’s souls -from blues to the sweet ‘blue sky’ Americana. This is a song that makes you want to be alive and live your life to the full. It’s a song that makes you want to put aside all this things that ail you, all those things that hold you down and cast them off and step forward into a new world where people love and look out for each other. A world that is beautiful and blue and the skies are clear.
The biggest compliment I can pay here as a long time fan of the Black Crowes is that to be honest after listening to ‘High Water I’ I’m not too sure I want The Black Crowes latest hiatus to ever end. ‘High Water I’ is going to be a very hard act to follow, and at this point in time seems to be a cert for my album of the year…
This is the album that they were thinking of when they told you they didn’t make albums like this anymore.
