Lynyrd Skynyrd One More From The Road: 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition CD

Additional Tracks; Live Recording; Deluxe Edition

Lynyrd Skynyrd: Ronnie Van Zant (vocals); Allen Collins, Gary Rossington (guitar); Billy Powell (keyboards); Leon Wilkeson (bass); Artimus Pyle (drums).
Additional personnel: Steve Gaines (guitar); Sam McPherson (harmonica); Cassie Gaines, Jo Billingsley, Leslie Hawkins (background vocals).
Producer: Tom Dowd.
Reissue producer: Ron O'Brien.
Recorded live at the Fox Theater, Atlanta, Georgia in July 1976. Originally released on MCA (6001). Includes original liner notes by Cameron Crowe and reissue liner notes Ron O'Brien.
Digitally remastered by Doug Schwartz (Audio Mechanics, Los Angles, California).
Double live albums were commonplace during the '70s, even for bands that weren't particularly good in concert. As a travelin' band, Lynyrd Skynyrd made their fame and fortune by being good in concert, so it made sense that they released a double-live, entitled One More from the Road, in 1976, months after the release of their fourth album, Gimme Back My Bullets. That might have been rather quick for a live album -- only three years separated this record from the group's debut -- but it was enthusiastically embraced, entering the Top Ten (it would become one of their best-selling albums, as well). It's easy to see why it was welcomed, since this album demonstrates what a phenomenal catalog of songs Skynyrd accumulated. Street Survivors, which appeared the following year, added "That Smell" and "You Got That Right" to the canon, but this pretty much has everything else, sometimes extended into jams as long as those of the Allmans, but always much rawer, nearly dangerous. That catalog, as much as the strong performances, makes One More from the Road worth hearing. Heard here, on one record, the consistency of Skynyrd's work falls into relief, and they not only clearly tower above their peers based on what's here; the cover of "T for Texas" illustrates that they're carrying on the Southern tradition, not starting a new one. Like most live albums, this is not necessarily essential, but if you're a fan, it's damn hard to take this album off after it starts. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
The '70s was the era of the live album--it seemed like just about every rock band used the format to bolster its career. But Lynyrd Skynyrd was already established as the premier Southern rock outfit by the time of its 1976 in-concert double album, ONE MORE FROM THE ROAD. What this release did was serve as proof that the non-stop touring the band had been indulging in since the dawn of the decade had made them an untouchable, rock-solid live act.
These renditions show that the band poured its heart and soul into its live set--the moving "Tuesday's Gone" is even more gut wrenching than its studio incarnation. "Saturday Night Special" is just as fierce, and "Sweet Home Alabama" takes on a party atmosphere, while the near 12-minute album closing "Free Bird" stretches to even more epic proportions than the studio version.