Country Store - Live!

(Ridge Runner RRR-0012) 1977.

Also issued in Japan (Trio PA-6302) 1977.

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This album was recorded sometime between 11-12 Aug 1973 at Bill Grant's 5th Annual Oklahoma Bluegrass Festival Inc., in Salt Creek Park, Hugo, OK. Adverts for the festival listed the band as The New Tradition, but by the time of the show they'd reverted back to their original name, Country Store. Jimmy Arnold was also sidelined by illness, so Alan Munde from the Country Gazette, was enlisted to play banjo on the bands two shows.

This was the first of two live appearances to be issued on LP, with another from June 1973 being issued as New Tradition - Live in 1978. Versions of three of the songs were included on both performances (Paradise, Mr. Bojangles and Nine Pound Hammer).

The band had very tight harmony vocals, in simiar vein to the Country Gents, with Keith Whitley also excelling on his lead vocals. Jimmy Gaudrea & Alan Munde also get to stretch out three instrumentals with versions of Frank Wakefield's New Camptown Races, Flatt & Scruggs' Shuckin' The Corn, and Ralph's Banjo Special - a rewrite of Bill Napier's Daybreak In Dixie.

Also noteworthy is the humorous verison of The Wreck Of The Old 97, with the band imitating the 'telegram' mid-way through the song...

Both live albums, demonstrate that the band had it together musically, but for whatever reason the outfit were short-lived.

Jimmy Arnold subsequently left the band sometime around Sept 1973, being replaced by Bobby Bryant. Then Keith Whitley left sometime around Oct 1973,^[1] returning to Sandy Hook, KY for a few months before taking up the lead vocal/guitar spot with Ralph following the murder of Roy Lee Centers at the start of May 1974.

Jimmy Gaudrea continued with the band, recording one album for Rebel. He and Keith Whitley would later play together again in J.D. Crowe's New South.

• Keith Whitley: guitar, lead vocals
• Alan Munde: banjo, vocals
• Jimmy Gaudreau: mandolin, fiddle, vocals
• Bill Rawlings: bass, vocals

Other artwork / related images:

[1] The insert to the Japanese "Country Store - Live!" LP (Trio PA-6302) includes a chronology of the band's different line-ups.