Alive In America [Remaster] by Crawler (CD, Sep-1999, Renaissance Records USA)

I bought this CD simply because I already have the 9 previous volumes of the Concert Classics series on Renaissance records. Much of those previous volumes are rather poor listening. This however is really a gem.

A brief history, Crawler is the remains of Back Street Crawler which was formed by former Free guitarist Paul Kossof. When Kossof died in 1975, Geoff Whitehorn was recruited to take his place. They carried on simply as Crawler, touring and recording two additional albums before keyboardist Rabbit left the band in 1978. As so often happens when a band loses its star performers (either through death or attrition) the remaining members soon through in the towel.

Back to the CD review. It is a general complaint of mine that this series is very poor in providing liner notes. This set was recorded live but no mention is made when or where. I am presuming it comes from a U.S. tour in 1977 in support of their first post-Kossof album "Crawler". Most of the material comes from that album, including the final cut "Stone Cold Sober". the song was a minor hit the U.S. market getting airplay across the radio waves back in the day.

I was disappointed that no songs from the earlier Back Street Crawler albums were included. But they do acknowledge their roots with the song "Muddy Waters". This song came from the last Free album "Heartbreaker" on which both Rabbit and Paul Kossof played on.

A surprise for me was how well this band covers The Band with a rendition of "The Shape I'm In". Absolutely excellent job. In a final analysis, this was a solid band but had no strong star appeal. It is a tragedy that Kossof died so young. With him, this group could have achieved much greater heights. Still this is great roots music in the annals of rock. Crawler at their best sound like Bad Company and Bad Company at their best sound like Free. I guess that is no surprise since both groups have that same common lineage.

Robin F. DeLage