Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

At the time of their arrival over a decade ago, Rock was dealing with its off and on bout with the flu, successfully distancing itself from eager youth looking for a new label to remedy discontent from simplicity and stage presence. 

So The Black Crowes, all the more remarkable in that they hit the scene with an impact nothing short of unexpected, throwing down their sixties and seventies Blues-inspired jive and Clapton-crafted licks that struck an immediate chord with another generation of listeners looking for a good time. 

With Stones-like swagger and Redding-like willingness, The Crowes carved a niche by usurping the power of the chord of platinum-minded predecessors, and have remarkably continued to strut their stuff today, honing their style by adding to their repertoire, their signature still grounded while extending a branch into more adventuresome quests lent of a Southern dignity drenched in Soul. Much like a ZZ Top before them, their spur of the moment success has waned in recent years, a sidestepping attribute of commercial dissonance, but their groundwork long since laid, their success lies unfettered in an ongoing and timeless state of affairs. 

"Live" captures the band in fine form for 19 career-spanning tracks that run the gamut of emotional fervor that's burned through the music since their inception. From the opening moments of the slide-driven, "Midnight From the Inside Out," the ruggedness of "Sting Me," and those mellow gold moments where "Sometimes Salvation" or a "Cursed Diamond" lead an epic excursion through the glory days of Sweet Home Alabama, it's one band and one performance that even if you're not familiar with them, they're easy to pick up on and the groove is addictive-"Cosmic Friend" specifically and single-handedly recreates the classic "Graffiti"-era Zep sound channeling a passion that Plant himself would find difficult to idle. 

So while disc one embodies a lengthier and more instrumental jaunt through their closer years, disc two breaks out the big ones that earned them their hour in the spotlight-"Twice As Hard," massive hit ballad, "She Talks To Angels," and of course their first big MTV hit "Hard To Handle," before trailing off with a rousing version of "Remedy," another of their big movers and natural close to the two and half hour proceedings. The exclusion of "Jealous Again" remains a mystery, still "Live" comes away much like their music-nothing fancy, hard working, driven, elastic and bare boned (not to suggest the Robinson Bros. physical framework but rather we're a little thin on the textual insert), pure Rock and Roll drollery with a company of classic influences from a band that seemingly too few have given their just due over the years.