News Segment
BLACK ARK ARKANSAS GET RAUNCHY:
March 13, 2007
Drawing its name from the little town this six-piece called home, Black Oak Arkansas was one of the hottest Southern rock bands of the 1970s. Offering a potent blend of boogie and metal, BOA cut two albums a year for most of the decade, but it was on the concert trail that the group really made its mark. As irrepressible frontman “Jim Dandy” Mangrum recalls, “It was amazing we went as far as we did. And it was because of our live show.”
The new collection The Complete Raunch ‘N’ Roll Live is an unadulterated dose of these hillbilly hard rockers doing what they did best – riling up an audience. Recorded on December 1st and 2nd, 1972 at Paramount Theaters in Portland and Seattle (different venues with the same name), these performances were the basis for the band’s Raunch ‘N’ Roll Live LP released a couple months later. Consisting of seven songs from the two evenings, that original album is considered by many to be Black Oak’s finest hour. The Rhino Handmade set presents both concerts in their ass-kicking entirety.
The 24 tracks on this double-CD include such fan favorites as “Hot & Nasty,” “Gettin’ Kinda Cocky,” and the epic “When Electricity Came To Arkansas,” as well as a psychedelic a capella version of “Dixie” and the black gospel-takes-acid trip workout “Lord Have Mercy On My Soul” — the sort of things you’d only hear at a BOA gig. Featuring remastered sound, numerous photos, and colorful recollections from guitarist Rick Reynolds and Mangrum (whose blond locks, garrulous raps, and bare-chested strut make him a forerunner of David Lee Roth), The Complete Raunch ‘N’ Roll Live captures Black Oak Arkansas in all its hell-raising glory.
The Complete Raunch ‘N’ Roll Live is available for $29.98 as an individually numbered limited edition of 5,000 copies. Get it now at:www.rhinohandmade.com/browse/ProductLink.lasso?Number=7732
Courtesy of www.rhinohandmade.com