Lynyrd Skynyrd - One More From The Road CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

never stray too far from Clapton's on Wheels of Fire. And ironically, the album's inevitable finale, "Free Bird"—the jam that made Skynyrd instant FM favorites—fails to maintain its heavyweight status, because it sounds, after four sides of the same, like just one final exertion of heavy-metal power.

While pianist Billy Powell remains in a largely supportive role, Ronnie Van Zant's singing is always solid—barroom-tough on rockers, properly vulnerable on two of the set's highlights, "Searching" and "The Needle and the Spoon." The only new song, "Travellin' Man,' which is sung with effective and unobtrusive background singers, receives a similarly world-weary interpretation. The album's real surprise though is a rock-out version of "T for Texas."

Skynyrd has never aspired to be more than a tough rock & roll band, and their live set—which draws more than half its material from their first two albums—lives up to that. Penny for penny, One More from the Road offers a prime cut of guitar rock. (RS 225)

JOHN MILWARD