Sometimes, karma can be a real bitch.
Just ask The Outlaws.
Brief history: The Outlaws were one of the very first bands
that I ever saw. They were part of a brief Iowa rock festival in the late 70’s/early 80’s
called the Iowa Jam. I saw ‘em in ’81 and I had no idea who they were, except
that they played Southern Rock music, and I kind of liked Southern Rock back in
’81.
Years later, as in just a few years ago, I heard their
A.O.R. staple “Green Grass and High Tides” and was just blown away with the
guitar work. Seriously, check that shit out if you’re like me and enjoy
listening to some flat-out awesome soloing.
Part of those solos are courtesy of the Outlaws original
guitarists Hughie Thomasson and Billy Jones. One played a Fender. The other
played a Gibson. Both were awesome.
You won’t find either one of them on the first Outlaws album
in 18 years, It’s About Pride. It’s
because Thomasson and Jones are dead; Jones killed himself in 1995 and
Thomasson died a few years ago from a heart attack.
Here’s where karma comes in: Thomasson had just jumpstarted
an Outlaws reunion after serving as, are you ready for this, one of the
guitarists in Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Now Lynyrd Skynyrd circa 2012 is in no way shape or form
Lynyrd Skynyrd. Things are so bad over in the Skynyrd camp that the surviving
members actually made an agreement stating that they would close up shop if it
came down to only one surviving member. That oath worked all the way until
there was one surviving member, who then decided to keep on going with the
moniker. Some bullshit about carrying on the tradition, never mind that
surviving widows were suing, reminding everyone about the “last man standing”
clause.
So anyway, Hughie Thomasson was one of those replacement
guitarists in Skynyrd, until one day he decides “I’m probably making as much
with Skynyrd doing these county fair gigs as I would be if I re-lit The Outlaws
and played county fairs with them! Plus, I don’t have to listen to Gary Rossington’s
bullshit anymore!”
Hughie does exactly this, and then he has a heart attack at
dies. So then Henry Paul, one of the vocalists and guitarists from the Outlaws
decides to keep the band going, even though Hughie had the rights to the
Outlaws name. So when Henry Paul decided to keep going as the Outlaws, Hughie’s
widow gets all pissed and sues him.
She eventually loses the fight, because Henry Paul was
working with Monte Yoho, the original drummer of the band, so the judge says “Sorry
lady, but there’s two original members of the Outlaws left. Dismissed!”
Now all of this backstory…Oh wait, I forgot to mention that
Henry Paul started a band called Blackfoot back in the early 90’s and they
scored a couple of minor country hits.
Ok, still with me?
So Henry Paul joins up with the reconstituted Outlaws, then
shanghai’s the entire name after Hughie croaks, and is now releasing the first
Outlaws album in 18 years called It’s
About Pride.
It’s About Pride
is about as much of an Outlaws album as anything that Lynyrd Skynyrd releases
these days, but it’s got this annoying country twang to it. The band tries to
conjure up moments of their guitar prowess, but whenever Henry Paul steps up to
belt out something, it sounds like Blackfoot, with more guitars.
He’s got such a grasp on everyone else’s throat, that when
they step up with some new clichéd material, it’s mixed in such an Adult
Country way that they are probably thinking the moronic video for “Hidin’ Out
In Tennessee” is going to make them all country stars again.
Just for good measure, there’s the title track-a bit of lazy
country rock history that name-checks Marshall Tucker and Charlie Daniels
songs, thinking that all of this will somehow legitimize The Outlaws’ circa
2012, even when they’re sounding like Blackfoot circa ’92.
