Ozark Mountain Daredevils – S/T – Used LP

VG/VG

While many of the hillbilly rockers of the 1970s came from L.A., these guys were actual hillbillies from the Missouri Ozarks, a fairly talented group of musicians who offered a side order of southern-fried rock that was nothing like ZZ Top, Skynyrd, Allman Brothers...Charlie Daniels, Molly Hatchet or Marshall Tucker...  While "Jackie Blue" from their next album would be their big hit, the mild hit "If you Wanna Get to Heaven" from this set is both more representative of this band, and also likely helped them get an early start on the Southern-fried rock craze that kicked in with Allman Brothers and kicked into overdrive with Skynyrd.  But fans of that hard-rock version of southern rock will likely want to look elsewhere.  This might be too downhome for some, and the ballads too much for others, but with different members involved in the songwriting of various songs, you get plenty of variety, sometimes in more of a folk mode, and other times bluegrass-influenced rock n roll, with a wide variety of subject material, from the serious to the silly, even offering melancholy doomsday space rock (hey it's no Planet Caravan, but likely was inspired by it).  And while the back porch wisdom might not stand alone without the music, I do like the line "It's everything you do, and nothing that you did."  Amen brothers from another mountain.  -- winch