![]() ![]() Allom's "heavy hand" (to put it one way) is probably most evident on the utterly irrepressible "Moonshine Runner," which barrels down the freeway with wild abandon and metallic staccatos amid the blaring horns of speed-addled 18-wheelers yet "I'm a Rocker" ain't too far behind, contrasting pounding power chords against high-speed boogie-woogie piano. ![]() But Doc Holliday's best-known attribute since forming nearly a decade prior as Roundhouse - that of being a fierce live proposition - was cut loose elsewhere with the help of British producer Tom Allom - an odd choice, on paper, since he'd only just wrapped work on Judas Priest's British Steel LP (though his prior experience included all kinds of rock & roll). ![]() ![]() These factors would explain the presence here of a true blue cowboy saloon boogie, complete with harmonica solo, named "Round & Round" an acoustic country strummer in "The Way You Do" a yearning, mid-paced rocker in the Bob Seger mold entitled "Never Another Night" a nod to AOR godfathers Boston, of all bands, via Eddie Stone's forceful keyboards on "Somebody Help Me," and the laid-back, funky vibes of "Midnight Lady" - unique tracks one and all. Into of the breach between the twain emerged Macon, Georgia's Doc Holliday, whose versatile, eponymous 1981 debut for A&M in many ways reflected the colorful upbringing of bandleader Bruce Brookshire: a world-traveling army brat during his youth who never lost sight of his Dixie roots. 38 Special and the Outlaws, angling for radio airplay and driving inexorably toward arena rock on the other were the tougher likes of Blackfoot and Molly Hatchet, inspired almost as much by contemporary hard rock trends as the old Southern rock masters. On the one hand were the mainstream-focused outfits like. Southern rock was at a real crossroads as the 1980s arrived: the heartbreak of Lynyrd Skynyrd's violent demise still hung over the landscape like a dark shroud, the Allman Brothers Band was grinding to a halt amid endless personal controversies and lukewarm musical output, and so perhaps it was no wonder that the genre's younger guns seemed at a loss about choosing the best way forward. ![]()
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