Plain and Fancy: Marshall Tucker Band - Together Forever (1978 us, awesome southern rock, flooded with jazz and blues drops, 2004 remaster with bonus track)

The expanded reissue of Marshall Tucker's Together Forever, originally issued in 1978 and the follow-up to the platinum-selling Carolina Dreams, was not so much a change in direction, but a musical expansion of their various strengths. Working with veteran jazz producer Stewart Levine, the Tuckers looked outside the Southern rock paradigm a little farther for inspiration and sustenance. Jazz had always been a fringe element of the band's sound, and here, Levine brought it closer to the surface. That is not to say that Marshall Tucker abandoned their rock & roll aesthetic, far from it.

They just deepened the open-ended nature of their tunes to include more improvisation and took a more textural approach to composing and recording. The set opens with Toy Caldwell's stellar "I'll Be Loving You." His stiletto-edged guitar is the catalyst for the song's drive, but the gorgeous suspended and major sevenths that created new harmonic vistas made Doug Gray's highly emotive vocals sound as if they were coming from the land itself. Likewise, "Love Is Mystery" was progressive country at its best in the 1970s. The jazzy stroll of "Dream Lover," with its lilting funk undertones, was something from outer space.

The 2004 expanded remaster includes a live reading of "Bound and Determined," which is jazz-funk cowboy music. And if that sounds awful, its groove is over the top and riddled with knots and grease. The recording quality on the tune isn't so great, but the performance is so inspired it's a welcome addition here.

by Thom Jurek