The Black Crowes - Shake Your Money Maker

90s were all about grunge when it came to good guitar-driven music, or at least early 90s. There was only one band then that released successful rock and roll records and got away with it: the Black Crowes. They debuted in 1990 with probably my favorite album of the decade - Shake Your Money Maker.

Heavily influenced by the Rolling Stones, the Faces and old blues singers, they weren't orginal at all - but the Black Crowes were, and still are, awesome musicians. "Sister Luck" is an obvious rip-off of the Stones' "Sway" for example, but who cares? I'd much rather hear it than a rip-off of anything else. Raw and hard "Struttin' Blues" and "Stare It Cold" are two another examples of the classic groove, but it's such a joy to listen to them, they sound like they're unstoppable, just go on and on, faster and faster. There are two fine ballads and absolutely insane Otis Redding cover, "Hard to Handle". The opening rocker with its remarkable slide guitar part reminds me of Neil Young's "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown", top this. Such a shame there's no "Shake Your Money Maker" on the album...

It's not only the best album in the Crowes 20 year history, it's a goddamn masterpiece. It really, really sounds like it was recorded in the 1960s, not 30 years later. Shake Your Money Maker was produced by Rick Rubin and the Rolling Stones' long time collaborator Chuck Leavell participated on piano. Highly recommended.

Pearl Jam's "2000 Mile Blues"

I'm not a fan of grunge but I've got a lot of respect for Pearl Jam. They're fans of the Who and Neil Young. They play a good kind of melodic hard rock but also have experience with high quality ballads which is a rare thing ;-) They're evolving, they don't have two same or even similar albums: each one is a step in another direction. The first live show I attended was by Pearl Jam and I loved it. They are indeed a great live band! And they know a little blues, too.

For PJ fans, their best release is the debut album called "Ten". Indeed a lot of their greatest hits come from that one. I like it. The reason I'm writing this post is simple, really: I was skiing in Austria whole last week with "Ten" in my ears and I broke a couple of speed records :)


Of "Ten", I like "Even Flow", that's surely a nice riff. And "Alive", it's probably their best song, I don't care much for the solo, though. "Black" and "Release" are great ballads and "Jeremy" is a moving story about a boy who shot himself in the classroom. The rest of the album is too hard for my liking, but I can listen to it once in a while.

I have downloaded just released extended version of the album. On second CD there are remixed versions of all album tracks and a couple of bonus tracks. "Breath And A Scream" is a great mid-tempo tune I listened to ten times in a row. Eddie Vedder's singing is adorable, really, and though the track is a little dark, it makes me feel good :-)


Another one I need to note here is "2000 Mile Blues"... It really is a blues song. A long way to go so it's understandable ;-) It's the dirtiest, ragged kind of blues I have heard in a long time. Slow, angry and loud. Fantastic guitar interplay (most of the time it takes two guitars to make a great track!). I tried to think about a bluesman who played that way... I still have no idea. Wasted Hubert Sumlin at five o'clock in the morning, maybe. Yeah, it was a compliment.

Another Pearl Jam tune I could easily recommend to fellow blues fans is "Come Back" from their self-titled album released in 2006.