Saturday, April 04, 2009

"Ashes Won't Burn" - Jeff Cook and his Goodtimes Allstar Band

Ex- Alabama lead guitarist Jeff Cook has not stopped playing since Alabama officially broke up in 04. His Allstar Goodtime band is a group is a nine piece group including himself that he handpicked to target fairs, festivals, casinos and very diverse types of music that Cook calls Funtry' music. It is a very veteran bunch of musicians. Their album "Ashes Won't Burn" is a mix of cover songs like "Knockin' On Heaven's Door", "Mist Of Desire", "Brick House"(Commodores), Free's "All Right Now" , an excellent version of the Beatles' "I Feel Fine". Honestly, I was surprised as I listened to the CD a few times, really was not what I was expecting. It is definitely a funky ,rockin' album. This group probably puts on a great live show.
Along with Cook, Larry Hanson, also from Alabama, plays guitar, sax, keyboards and trumpet. Lead guitarist Link Detten Has been a pro entertainer for over twenty years. He has played by himself to having been in many other bands. RK Brown , began his career young at 16 hitting the road, playing bass also, played with Curtis Mayfield, Clint Black, Charlie Pride and many others.
The record is on Quest Records. It is available for download on itunes and on Cook's website. The only other project I reviewed of Cook's was a Cracker Barrel Restaurant release of "Unreleased Songs From Alabama's Farewell tour". I basically missed Alabama's careeer, not listening to music, but Church music in the Eighties when they were super hot, remember a gal that I worked with, loved Alabama, and I loved country music, but wasn't familiar with much, but their big hits. I really enjoyed The Cracker Barrel release, The band sounded great, it was a very good recording. I remember listing the musicians wrong and I got an e-mail from a Jeff Cook, He said, you are not very familiar with Alabama , are you? I confessed that I was not, and he told me that I had a couple of the musicians playing wrong instruments. I e-mailed the guy back, not knowing who it was, until I went to fix the problem and saw Jeff Cook, I had to laugh at myself. Basically, this is a bunch of super talented musicians that click well. It sounds like they enjoy what they are doing. So, you Alabama fans, go on and pick up a copy.

http://www.jeffcook-agb.com/

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