The Black Crowes have just released a box set for their landmark second album – and how many second albums can we say that about, that it’s a classic? – Southern Harmony And Musical Companion. The box is modeled much the same way as the Shake Your Money Maker – 30th Anniversary box from a few years ago in that it’s a three disc box with the original album, a disc of outtakes and finally a concert disc from the “High As The Moon Tour” from 1992-1993. I still wonder why I didn’t include the Crowes and Southern Harmony on my list of bands who defied the “sophomore slump.” Maybe because their debut album was so strong? While I love this album and if you don’t own it this is a nice package, I do think the box is flawed. And at (currently) $97, it’s a bit pricey for a three disc set.

As I have stated before, I got on the Crowes band wagon in 1990, shortly after I’d returned from my corporate exile in Northwest Arkansas. I remember hearing “Jealous Again” in my car and that was all it took. I may have even heard this song when I still lived in Arkansas. However, I did wait until I heard their Otis Redding cover “Hard To Handle” before I headed down to the CD store in Westport to pick up the album. Man, am I glad I did. Blues rock had largely been supplanted in the 80s by Hair Metal. Those bands all wanted to look and sound like Van Halen – few did – and that wonderful connection to rock’s roots in the blues was severed. When the Crowes surfaced, they took me back to that classic Stones/Faces vibe that I sooo love. The Stones are my Alpha and Omega. In a world dominated at the time by Grunge, here was a band singing the blues and lamenting how they were “Seeing Things.” Oh, yes!

By May 12th in 1992 I was home in Kansas City and in that classic successful phase of life known as, “Moved back in with my parents.” So I can only guess that my first time hearing the first single “Remedy” had to be in the car. Mom didn’t appreciate high volume rock n roll the same way I did. She almost had a heart attack when I played some Sabbath at full volume… I didn’t know she was home…Anyway, at the time I remember reading in Rolling Stone magazine that the Crowes were putting out their second album. I was primed for some new Crowes but second albums can be difficult… the sophomore slump is real. As ready as I was for new Crowes in 1992, I was not emotionally prepared for the power of that first single, “Remedy.” God, what a song! It leaped from the speakers and grabbed me by the lapel and slapped my face. That riff was huge and heavy and wonderful. I steered the car immediately to the record store. I remember visiting a guy I knew in Dallas at the time and I couldn’t stop singing “Remedy.” I kept blowing the lyric, “Baby, baby why you dye your hair…” and I was singing, at the top of my lungs, “Baby, baby why you dry your hair…” Yes, there was drink involved. It’s hard to stay sober in Texas.

The first half of Southern Harmony is about as good as the Crowes ever got. And believe it’s sublime rock n roll, dripping with blues feel. The opener “Sting Me” did just that. That track led to “Remedy,” my favorite Crowe’s tune. But just when you’d been pummeled into submission, in a good way, here comes the acoustic guitars (which weren’t heard a lot back then outside of the Unplugged Series) with “Thorn In My Pride.” “Bad Luck Blue Eyes, Goodbye” perhaps my favorite of their bluesy stuff, follows and at that point I’m in need of a shot of bourbon and fan. After that they just rock out. Listening to the entire album yesterday while I drove down to the DMV (yet again), it was those deeper, harder rock tracks that grabbed my ear. “Hotel Illness” was always a favorite. “Black Moon Creeping” is a sledgehammer of a rock song as is “No Speak No Slave.” “My Morning Song” is a great slide riff. There’s not a bad moment on this album. And then, just to freak me out, they cover a deep track of Bob Marley’s, “Time Will Tell.” Acoustic reggae on a blues rock album, Hell, yes!

As mentioned, the first disc in the box is the original album in all it’s glory. It’s been remastered and as usual they’ve cranked up the sound to 11 so it’s pretty damn loud aka “brickwalled.” But if you’ve never owned the album it’s still a great listen. Disc 2, for me is usually where the gold is found. Although, and this is where I think this disc is flawed, there’s only 9 tracks on the outtakes disc. I have to think these guys were on such a roll they had more in the can than just these 9 tracks. The last four tracks are “In Studio Live” versions of tracks on the album: “Sting Me (Slow),” “Sometimes Salvation,” “Blue Eyes Bad Luck, Goodbye” and “Black Moon Creeping.” Those are nice to have but far from essential. The “Sting Me (Slow)” version is one that I already had as bonus track. It is, as advertised, a “slow” version of “Sting Me” which is interesting.

Half the bonus disc filled with “In Studio Live” is just meh for me. However, that said there are 5 nice outtakes that every Crowes fan will dig. “99 Pounds” is quintessential Crowes, but it has been released prior to this and yes, I already have the song. “Miserable,” which I reviewed earlier, is a great track. I like the slow burn blues track more each time I hear it… and it does explode into a jam at the end. They do a ripping “In Studio Live” cover of Dylan’s “Rainy Day Woman No 12 & 35,” (the “everybody must get stoned” song). I do so love Dylan covers… “Boomer’s Story” is a nice bluesy number. It would have fit perfectly on the album. I really like this song. “Darling Of The Underground Press” is an acoustic blues number that knocks me out. Over bluesy acoustic there are stabs of electric guitar. As much as I love “Time Will Tell,” (nobody covers Bob Marley!), I would have rather had this track on the finished album.

Disc 3 is a concert from the tour for Southern Harmony, which was known as the “High As The Moon” tour. This was the first tour me and my friends saw the Crowes and man, were they awesome. As an aside, the Rock Chick saw the Crowes on their first tour when they opened for Aerosmith. She said she was more impressed with the Crowes that night than she was with Aerosmith. There’s a reason I call her the Rock Chick, but I digress. I saw pretty much the same setlist as they played in Houston, where this concert was recorded… this was only a couple of weeks before we – Storm Cat, the Accountant and I – saw them. Storm Cat liked the show so much a few months later he jumped in a car with two stoner cooks from where he worked and drove up to St Joseph, Missouri to see it again… kudo’s Storm!

No one is a bigger fan of a live album culled from the then current tour that bands put into these box sets than I am. It’s also usually where the gold is. Guns N Roses shows from the Use Your Illusions tour is a case in point. I don’t know how many times I’ve walked out of a concert and thought, “that should be the live album, just release this show.” Of course nowadays, bands actually do that. I purchased the Springsteen show I saw in February here in KC right after I saw the show and I love that live album! There was a real opportunity for the Crowes on this live disc. However, they edited all the Shake Your Money Maker live songs from the concert off this disc. They also did a Bob Marley cover that night and they cut it off. You get each Southern Harmony track live plus a “Jam” they put together. It’s good but as they say down south, it’s like kissing your sister. If they’d released the whole show I’d be 100% in. It doesn’t help that the bootleg of the entire show has been out there for 30 years… Sigh. They blew this one. Give us the whole concert – especially at $97!

As much as I love the Black Crowes – I even loved the EP they did last year 1972 – I can’t recommend this box as a purchase. First and foremost, it’s too expensive. The price may come down after the first of the year so keep an eye out and you may get it cheaper. The outtakes disc is far too short and contains too many “In Studio Live” songs that are already on the LP in a superior version. And finally, they edited the concert down which is, in this Rock Historian/Complete-ist view, a sin. This is going to be a set that you’ll want to stream – especially those first 5 outtakes – and the concert. While disappointing as edited, the live performance is still somethin’. This is some peak Black Crowes on these slender discs.

Cheers and Happy Holidays!