Album Review - Outlaws - Hurry Sundown

Artist:  Outlaws

Album:  Hurry Sundown

Date: 1977

After last weekend's review (Jules and The Polar Bears), i got to thinking about other promotional albums I own, and where I got them.  Which lead me to Hurry Sundown, from the Outlaws.  I'm pretty certain this was the first promotional album I got, and I won it in a radio station contest.  

So, we'll start with the story of how I won it.  One of the radio station I listened to* had a contest where listeners would suggest a playlist of 3 songs.  If they selected your playlist, you'd win a record.  Now this was nefore email, and facebook and web-pages.... It was either snail-mail, or call and leave a message**.  Anyway, I submitted a playlist that included southern rock opuses.  Prtty sure it was Marshall Tucker Band - Can't You See (live version), Charlie Daniels Band - Saddle Tramp, and Lynyrd Skynyrd's Free Bird.  At 26.5 minutes, it was certainly long enough.  Bottom line, it won!  I actually wasn't around a radio that Saturday, so I didn't hear it, but one of my friend did, and let me know. And a couple of weeks later, this album showed up in the mail!

* probably WDVE, but possible WYDD.  I really don't remember.

**  Again, I don't remember, but I think it was snail mail.

So, about the album:  This was the 3 album by the Outlaws, after the eponymous first album, and its follow-up, Lady In Waiting.  The first is a classic, one of my favorites from the genre.  the second is good, but a notable step down (IMHO).  So, where would the 3rd album land?  I place it somewhere between the two.  There are no low points, every song is solid.  But there's no "There Goes Another" Love Song" of "Song In The Breeze"...  But is is a very listenable album, full of great guitars.  Still carrying a lot of the more country / bluegrass influence.

High points (IMHO):  Gunsmoke, Hurry Sundown, So Afraid, Heavenly Blues.  

Note:  As the band's 3rd album, it features the first lineup change, as Harvey Dalton Arnold replacing Frank O'Keefe on bass. It is also the last album with Henry Paul, after which they moved into a more generic hard rock sound.  The first 3 Outlaws albums are the ones to own.....

Aside:  The Outlaws were the opening act for the first concert I attended as a teenager:  Outlaws, Steve Marriott's All Stars and Lynyrd Skynyrd in spring of 1976.  Excellent show.  I've seen then at least 4 times, as much or more than any other act....

Back cover:

And the record sleeve  front and back: