TCCDM Pulls One Out..."Keep The Faith" (1972)

"Keep The Faith" - Black Oak Arkansas (1972)

If I had to confess a rock-n-roll album guilty pleasure.."Keep The Faith” by the Black Oak Arkansas gang would be one of the first on my list.  I get it.  Jim 'Dandy' Mangrum and that “back-of-the-throat snarl” is a real tangled octopus.  But somehow, I've gotten over it and now welcome that voice as just being part of the whole batshit BOA experience.  It's crazy, but dang if they're not sincere about it.   And it's sometimes easy to forget, the bandmates backing frontman Jim Dandy can seriously fire up the grill.  Those guys handling the heavy hardware are probably one of the more under-appreciated musicians in rock.  I kind of dig early southern rock anyway.  And the fact that BOA throws in a little dab of southern psych dust into the mix makes “Keep The Faith” all the crazy better.

I like using Black Oak Arkansas when I have outside work to get done.  I can seriously get some outside shit accomplished with BOA crankin'!  Try it sometime.  There are no real surprises here.  You know what you're gonna get before you even pick up the album.  Look, Black Oak Arkansas ain't never gonna be confused with Lynyrd Skynyrd or the Allman Brothers Band.   And their lyrics will never be confused for Dylan.  But that‘s all right.   Black Oak Arkansas, and this album, in particular, might be a guilty pleasure...but every now and then...a little 'batshit-crazy' is just what the doctor ordered.  Now, what album is your guilty pleasure?

"Keep The Faith" (back)

"Keep The Faith" (inside)

ATCO label

"Fever In My Mind" - Black Oak Arkansas / "Keep The Faith" (1972)

TRACKS:
A1  "Keep the Faith" 3:10
A2  "Revolutionary All American Boys" 3:34
A3  "Feet on Earth, Head in Sky" 4:14
A4  "Fever in My Mind" 2:49
A5  "The Big One's Coming" 4:00
B1  "White-Headed Woman" 4:57
B2  "We Live on Day to Day" 5:16
B3  "Short Life Line" 4:51
B4  "Don't Confuse What You Don't Know" 4:45

PERSONNEL:
Jim "Dandy" Mangrum - vocals, washboard
Harvey "Burley" Jett - guitar, banjo, piano, vocals
Stanley "Goober" Knight - lead & steel guitar, organ, vocals
Rickie "Ricochet" Reynolds - 12 string rhythm guitar, vocals
Pat "Dirty" Daugherty - bass guitar, vocals
Wayne "Squeezebox" Evans - drums

Good stuff.

Casey Chambers
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