The Black Crowes' debut album,
Shake Your Money Maker, may borrow heavily from the bluesy hard rock grooves of
the Rolling Stones and
Faces (plus a bit of classic soul), but the band gets away with it due to sharp songwriting and an ear for strong riffs and chorus melodies, not to mention the gritty, muscular rhythm guitar of
Rich Robinson and brother
Chris' appropriate vocal swagger. Unlike their later records,
the Crowes don't really stretch out and jam that much on
Money Maker, but that helps distill their virtues into a handful of memorable singles ("Jealous Again," "She Talks to Angels," a cover of
Otis Redding's "Hard to Handle"), and most of the album tracks maintain an equally high standard.
Shake Your Money Maker may not be stunningly original, but it doesn't need to be; it's the most concise demonstration of the fact that
the Black Crowes are a great, classic rock & roll band.
[The 30th Anniversary Super Deluxe edition of
the Black Crowes' debut album
Shake Your Money Maker features a brand-new remaster from the record's original producer,
George Drakoulias, a disc of B-sides and unreleased songs, then a full concert in their hometown of Atlanta, Georgia from December 1990. Many of the B-sides have been in circulation -- not just the alternate versions of the singles "Hard to Handle," "Jealous Again," and "She Talks to Angels," but also the non-LP tunes "Don't Wake Me" and "Waiting Guilty" -- but this disc has a few things of note: the ragged "Charming Mess," which was once slated to be a single but ultimately pulled from the album; a surprisingly groovy version of
John Lennon's "Jealous Guy"; and a rendition of
Humble Pie's "30 Days in the Hole" that underscores the group's devotion to British blues-rock while underlining how they sound a little thin and tentative. That is not how
the Black Crowes sound on-stage, though. The live show features a wilder, looser
Crowes fronted by a
Chris Robinson who is just finding his on-stage stride. Rougher and wilder than the album proper, it's worth the price of Super Deluxe admission.] ~ Steve Huey