Fire On The Mountain: The Charlie Daniels Band

Kama Sutra KSBS 2603

Reviewed by Nanker Phelse

The Charlie Daniels Band is the outfit formed by the legendary sessionman, veteran of three Dylan albums among countless others. Funnily enough, and despite their New-York-based label, they emanate from the Deep South and record at the Capricorn studios in Macon, Georgia. Like the Allman Brothers and Wet Willie they display a healthy approach to their craft that produces head and heart warming music. However, unlike those bands, they don't share their hard-edged approach and instead work in a mellower country style more reminiscent of Marshall Tucker.

They are most endearing for their casualness, whether on up-tempo pieces or down-to-earth ballads. The album—with the exception of the live segment that occupies most of side two. 'No Place To Go' and 'Orange Blossom Special'—is equally divided between the two. The former material works best. 'Long Haired Country Boy' has a good-timey feel and an exuberance that is the mark of musicians enjoying their work.

Like their studio mates—and a whole helping of other Capricorn music that, through label distribution problems, hasn't yet been released in New Zealand—Fire On The Mountain suffers from a certain sameness in the material. Its very eveness tends towards the soporific by the time 'No Place To Go' arrives. But they generally manage to avoid tedium through a judiciously-placed piano solo here, or fiddle jam there.