Original Album Series: Black Oak Arkansas (2013) [5CD Box Set]

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Original Album Series: Black Oak Arkansas (2013) [5CD Box Set]

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The first five studio albums of the Southern rock band's career are collected in this 2013 slipcase box – Black Oak Arkansas, Keep the Faith, If an Angel Came to See You…, High on the Hog, and Street Party. Aside from 1975's Ain't Life Grand and the live album Raunch 'N' Roll Live, these are the most essential albums, and an easy, affordable way to gather all the necessary Black Oak Arkansas material in one purchase. Each album is presented as a mini-LP housed in a cardboard sleeve as a way to cut down cost and save space.

by Jason Lymangrover

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Original Album Series: Black Oak Arkansas (2013) [5CD Box Set]

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Black Oak Arkansas Biography

Southern rock veterans Black Oak Arkansas never quite achieved the level of success enjoyed by contemporaries like Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers, but have remained a cult band thanks to their raw, primitive energy and the testosterone-fueled antics of lead vocalist/showman James "Big Jim Dandy" Mangrum. Named for Mangrum's hometown, Black Oak Arkansas eventually built up a solid following through incessant touring and enjoyed a run of ten charting albums between 1971 and 1976. The band also found itself with a Top 30 single in their raunchy cover of a LaVern Baker R&B hit called "Jim Dandy to the Rescue," which became Mangrum's signature song. When album sales dried up, Mangrum re-formed the band with more musically skilled veteran players and continued to tour, although the group's glory days were past.

Black Oak Arkansas dates back to the mid-'60s, when a group of young, long-haired misfits headed by Jim Mangrum, unable to find work, turned to rock & roll. However, the group was unable to purchase equipment and ended up being arrested for grand larceny after stealing items from the local school in order to get money. They were nearly run out of town and went to live in the nearby hills, locating and borrowing equipment where they could. The band moved to New Orleans in 1969 and called itself Knowbody Else, with a lineup of vocalist Mangrum; guitarists Ricky "Ricochet" Reynolds, Stanley "Goober" Knight, and Harvey "Burley" Jett; bassist Pat Daugherty; and drummer Wayne Evans. Knowbody Else recorded a self-titled album for Stax, which went nowhere; rethinking their approach, the band became interested in psychedelia and Eastern spirituality, which they filtered through their Southern Baptist upbringing. Changing their name to Black Oak Arkansas, the band secured a deal with Atlantic after several trips to Los Angeles and released its self-titled debut in 1971. While it wasn't a hit, the band toured extensively, building a reputation as a raw, incendiary live act that made up for occasional musical deficiencies with energy and the explicit sexuality of Mangrum, who flaunted his body at every opportunity and became known for such antics as miming sex with the washboard he used for musical accompaniment.

The band's second album, Keep the Faith, was a noticeable improvement, as the band had honed its sound and material through numerous live gigs; If an Angel Came to See You, Would You Make Her Feel at Home? followed the same year, featuring new drummer Tommy Aldridge, but it was 1973's Raunch 'N' Roll Live that established the group as a commercial force. That year, High on the Hog became their most commercially successful album, reaching number 52 on the charts. It was buoyed by the Top 30 cover version of "Jim Dandy to the Rescue," which featured female vocalist Ruby Starr trading innuendoes with Jim "Dandy" Mangrum. Several more albums followed before the group parted ways with Atlantic in 1976; Jett left the band in 1975 and was replaced by Starr cohort James Henderson. Lineup shifts were rampant as the group switched to MCA; Aldridge left and was replaced by Joel Williams, while the guitar/bass axis was gutted and rebuilt around Greg Reding, Jack Holder, and bassist Andy Tanas. This lineup released Race With the Devil in 1977, after the band had one last taste of success with the "Strong Enough to Be Gentle" single. Following several lackluster, straightforward Southern rock albums, the band called it quits in 1980. After recovering from a heart attack, Mangrum reunited with Reynolds in 1984 for a solo album, Ready as Hell; The Black Attack Is Back followed two years later. In 1999, BOA reunited to release The Wild Bunch.

by Steve Huey

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Original Album Series: Black Oak Arkansas (2013) [5CD Box Set]

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Produced by Iron Butterfly's Lee Dorman and Mike Pinera, Black Oak Arkansas introduced a three-guitar thunderstorm underpinning the scary basso profundo growls of lead singer Jim "Dandy" Mangrum. This was a sound unlike any other on the then-nascent Southern rock scene. With songs like "Hot and Nasty," "Lord Have Mercy on My Soul," and an otherworldly cover of Guy Mitchell's hit "Singing the Blues," Black Oak found a cult following through incessant touring with the likes of the Allman Brothers Band. This is not pretty music, but it does have a propulsive kick to it, with the guitars going in several directions at once while Jim Dandy's Howlin' Wolf-influenced vocals lay out a strange blend of macho sexual and religious imagery. Although the sound would quickly become cartoonish over subsequent releases, this initial release contained the spark of the new and different.

by Jim Newsom

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Original Album Series: Black Oak Arkansas (2013) [5CD Box Set]

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With this, their sophomore effort, Black Oak Arkansas was swiftly sinking into unintentional self-parody. The lyrics continued the mix of apocalyptic pseudo-religious imagery and blatant sexual innuendo begun on their first album, and the music rocked with the onslaught of three guitars going in different directions at once. However, the freshness that carried the first release was gone, Jim "Dandy" Mangrum's growling vocalizations were already getting old, and the whole thing sounds formulaic, uninspired and downright silly.

by Jim Newsom

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Original Album Series: Black Oak Arkansas (2013) [5CD Box Set]

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Several years before cracking the Top 40 with its rendition of "Jim Dandy (To the Rescue)," Black Oak Arkansas was putting out some pretty decent rock & roll albums. Of course, Jim Mangrum's voice is one of those you have to either love or hate, but whichever way you tend to lean on that opinion, it is a stone cold fact that Mangrum is one of the more unique vocalists to come out of the 1970s "classic" rock onslaught. Choice cuts here include "Mutants of the Monster" and the disc opener, "Gravel Roads." This may not be BOA's best album, but it certainly comes in a close third behind Raunch and Roll and High on the Hog.

by Michael B. Smith

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Original Album Series: Black Oak Arkansas (2013) [5CD Box Set]

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This is probably the best-known album in the Black Oak Arkansas catalog, thanks in large to part to its hit cover of the LaVern Baker R&B classic "Jim Dandy." This effective update combines a countrified touch, some electric guitar fireworks, and a frenetic double-time tempo with the inimitable hillbilly vocals of Jim "Dandy" Mangrum to create a song that became a hit with both country and pop listeners. It is definitely High on the Hog's undisputed highlight, but the other tracks surrounding it also have plenty to offer. Although they were too eccentric a band to fit a strict "Southern rock" label a la Lynyrd Skynyrd, Black Oak Arkansas did have an ability to dish up both country and rock sounds with style. For instance, "Red Hot Lovin'" is a punchy rocker about the joys of loving a red-haired woman, while "Back to the Land" is a tribute to rural life delivered in a convincing, pure country style. Elsewhere, the group also shows a surprisingly ability to mix elements of pure funk into their country-rock stew: "Swimmin' in Quicksand" glides along on some funky wah-wah guitar licks that could have been lifted from a Funkadelic record. The band also gets a solid showcase for their chops on "Moonshine Sonata," a tasty little instrumental that starts off as sprightly country-rock rave-up before shifting into a down-home ballad tempo for a surprisingly lovely and mellow finale. In the end, High on the Hog probably won't appeal to anyone who isn't already a Southern rock fan, but anyone who enjoys this genre will find plenty to like on this album.

by Donald A. Guarisco

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Original Album Series: Black Oak Arkansas (2013) [5CD Box Set]

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Street Party, Black Oak Arkansas' follow-up to their most successful opus, High on the Hog, had a respectable chart performance, but in no way does the 1974 Atco release live up to the standard of the group's previous recordings. James "Jim Dandy" Mangrum's rockin' redneck shtick simply overpowers the music on Street Party, setting the tone for a string of inferior offerings. Eventually, the band's movement away from their Southern rock roots and into diverse and sometimes comical side-roads would cost them their relevancy and most of their audience. Too much emphasis is placed on style and musical devices, while the amount of straight-ahead Southern rock is unduly restricted. The bluegrass- and gospel-tinged "Brink of Creation" is the only non-rocker that really works on this record. Mangrum's lazy croaking squelches many other numbers like the spiritual "Sure Been Workin' Hard" and "I'm a Man." Despite this LP's respectable sales, it should only be approached with extreme caution.

by Vincent Jeffries

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Original Album Series: Black Oak Arkansas (2013) [5CD Box Set]

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