What band could be better suited to make a record where they are paying tribute to other great (Southern) rock bands, like Thin Lizzy, ZZ Top and others, all bands that in one way or another have influenced Molly Hatchet’s sound. The album starts of with a fantastic cover of ZZ Top’s ‘Sharp Dressed Man’, and is followed by an equally impressive version of Thin Lizzy’s ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’. Follows a slow, almost – but not really acoustical version of ‘Desperado’ a song by The Eagles, and then comes what to me is one of the highlights of the album, ‘Bad To The Bone’, by the seriously underestimated George Thorogood.
Next in line is ‘Dreams I’ll Never See’, originally a song by the Allman Brothers Band, a song on which Phil McCormack’s vocals are near to heavenly, followed by another song from the Allman Brothers Band, ‘Melissa’ which is one of the weaker tracks on this album. The version they give of Mountain’s ‘Mississippi Queen’ is as yet unheard of I think.This is followed by another Eagles song, ‘Tequila Sunrise’.
The next two songs are Rolling Stones, songs that are not bad, but seem a bit out of place on this album. To top it off there are three bonus live tracks, among them what must be one of their most successful songs ‘Flirtin’ With Disaster’.
This is a good album, but it’s a bit of a shame that almost the same songs were released on a compilation by Mausoleum records, not more than a year ago. And then they say the sales of music are dwindling, because so much people are downloading. I’ve never ever downloaded a single track, I still prefer owning the album, and being able to read the booklet that goes with the CD, but if they think releasing almost the same album twice, in a short notice, is going to revamp the sales, they’s quite wrong.