25th Anniversary Best Of Re-recorded

Strange. Molly Hatchet is celebrating its 25th anniversary together, and the present lineup (or, as I call them, the second iteration of the band) ha ...

25th Anniversary Best Of Re-recorded
Provided By:The Daily Vault

25th Anniversary Best Of Re-recorded
Molly Hatchet
SPV Records, 2003
REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 05/28/2004
Strange. Molly Hatchet is celebrating its 25th anniversarytogether, and the present lineup (or, as I call them, the seconditeration of the band) has three studio albums under its belt, allrecorded as Bobby Ingram and company try to find their own uniquevoice. So what would compel them to re-record a whole slew of songsfrom the Danny Joe Brown era of Molly Hatchet?
25th Anniversary Best Of Re-Recorded most certainly lives upto its name, taking songs from every studio album up to Lightning Strikes Twice (the last featuring Brown as leadvocalist) and gives them the new lineup's spin on them. There areno surprises here, and the covers of these songs are respectableenough. But one does have to wonder just what the entire pointwas.
Vocalist Phil McCormack, the hand-picked successor to Brown inMolly Hatchet, sounds uncannily like Brown on these tracks, even ifhe doesn't have the vocal range for some of the higher notes. (Inhis defense, he compensates well for this.) Ingram is undoubtedlythe flashiest guitarist the band has ever had, and that's not a badthing, for he keeps the band's heart pumping.
Long-time Molly Hatchet fans will undoubtedly hear differencesbetween the re-recordings and the originals, but even the diehardsamong the crowd will have to admit that the covers are deliveredquite well. Sure, tracks like "Flirtin' With Disaster" and "WhiskeyMan" are familiar opuses, but the level of respect the newerincarnation of the band has for the material is evident. And it ispleasing to hear such favorites as "Fall Of The Peacemakers,""Bounty Hunter" and "Dreams I'll Never See" again, even if two ofthe three were given the acoustic treatment by this lineup notterribly long ago.

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