Good Humor Band
Style Weekly, October 8, 2001
This 19-cut history of one of the East Coast’s most popular bands from two decades past is a rock ‘n’ roll gem. Included here are songs recorded live at long-gone venues, never-released studio tunes cut in the early ’80s and new songs taped in Nashville last year. Often scary in musical intensity, the Richmond-based band’s lineup changed often, but the players have always remained wonderfully unpredictable and wildly incorrigible. Through the years, many other great players jumped in the van and this CD has them all. One of the best songs, “D.W.I.,” was recorded when Evan Johns and Danny Gatton were aboard. But the range of new and old material shows just how good these guys were from the get-go and how good they remain today. Their version of “Harlem Nocturne” recorded live in 1983 is hair-raising, and a 1982 studio version of “She’s Late” is a classic. The booklet in itself is worth the price of admission as it presents a thorough history of the band and song-by-song recording details. This is what God intended when he created rock ‘n’ roll. — Ames Arnold