AWB (1974)
MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$
Is this name a self-deprecating move? Maybe what they want you to believe is that they are pretty funky for some average white guys from Scotland.
This band is tight. They jam. They make you jump up and shake your groove thang. Dang, these average white boys.
All they did was have a No. 1 U.S. Billboard hit, Pick Up the Pieces that was mostly instrumental funk. Tight. Right?
I think the rest of the album suffers a bit from comparison to ‘Pick Up the Pieces’. I’m a bigger fan of that Southern fried funk country jam folk (for lack of a better description) — of someone like Randall Ramblett: That other Mile.
But Pick Up the Pieces –, gosh the song — with it changalanga rhythm guitar intro joined abruptly by hard stopping trumpet punctuation — should come with a warning label: May cause involuntary muscle spasms in human and other mammals.
But again, the chance of a song in this vein breaking out to worldwide status today is nil. Heck the chances were pretty much nil then in 1974 although Top 40 radio was more diverse, or so it seemed, in styles of music. This is the bottom line ( a cliche’ I know but given the album cover and the excellent bass playing I thought it might work. Bear with me).: AWB played like they meant it, like they loved it, like they felt it.
They weren’t about to just arbitrarily funk it up..
(back cover has this shot of this average white boys’ band.
Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.