Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Potliquor - Potliquor (1979)

Here's another release from Louisiana's Potliquor. By 1979, the band had undergone noticable changes both with an overhaul of the entire lineup(minus bassist Guy Schaeffer) and the band's musical direction. Where classic Potliquor were drenched in gospel influenced southern rock, this reborn lineup were aiming more for Allman Brothers territory. Along with a lineup change, the band also found a new home at Capitol Records, which presented greater career possibilities than their previous contract with the smaller Janus label. Whether this change prompted mass resistance is not known, but surely fans were divided when the singles from this effort hit the airwaves later that year. It is known that the band toured for a year or so before collapsing completely. Members went on to work in various bands as well as pursuing other interests outside of the business.

So how does it stand up to the Potliquor legacy? It doesn't one way or the other. It's a whole ball of wax in its own right. With Ratzlaff's bellowing voice out of the equation, Potliquor's sound has adopted a more radio friendly style, that is admittedly more faceless than their previous work. In spite of this setback, there are some great moments captured here with a smoother and more refined sound at the forefront. Though the album did manage to net the band airplay in southern markets , it failed to meet both critical and consumer expectations. It's a shame, because taken on its own, "Potliquor" is a decent southern rock effort. Take a quick listen and judge for yourself.

7 comments:

micksguitar said...

great band. this is a very good effort by potliquor. it stands on it's own as a fine rock record. thanx j for the share. mick

Anonymous said...

Could you please add an embedded MP3 Player?

http://6070rock.blogspot.com/ for example uses DivShare http://upload.divshare.com/

That would allow us to preview a few seconds of each album before downloading anything. It’s very hard to choose what to download amongst all your posts, they all seem very appealing.
I for one don’t have the time to download and listen to them all, so I gotta choose (usually 2 albums per week) and I already feel I made some bad choices recently (Tilt for example which is nothing special). It’s not an easy task, DivShare or the like would help. Thanks.

JKR said...

I appreciate the feedback, Alex, and I will consider your suggestion. Unfortunately, I am not a full-time blogger & time is precious. The blog already requires alot of research work, digital conversions, audio tweaking & synopsis writing. If this becomes an important issue to the majority & I can make ample time to integrate this feature into each posting, I'll gladly get to work on it. Thanks :)

Anonymous said...

I had the first three Potliquor LP's but this one doesn't look familiar. They put out some great music back in the 70's. Thanks! Much of your stuff looks interesting and I haven't heard of most of it (and I thought *I* had eclectic taste!)

Anonymous said...

Hi Ronnie - Great blog, thanks!!

Diggin' Potliquor and cannot find their first effort FIRST TASTE anywhere. Can you post if you do have it?

Best Regards!!

Anonymous said...

Of all their albums, I happen to like this one the best. It might have something to do with the fact that I was born a year after this album was released. My father and I are friends with Guy Schaeffer (the bassist). I'm glad someone on the net has posted their music. I still to this day blast this cd while sailin down I-12. I have friends, relatives, and even strangers come up to me askin who that is that I'm playin.

Anonymous said...

I was introduced to potliquor a few days ago-FIRST TIME cd! Woah! Amazingly spiritual! So much variety in their sound!