ALBUM REVIEW: Pure Prairie League is ‘Back on Track’

Pure Prairie League came Bustin’ Out in 1970 with hit love song “Amie,” and riding the country rock highway with songs like “Early Morning Riser,” “Two Lane Highway,” “Kentucky Moonshine,” and “I’ll Change Your Flat Tire, Merle.” Over the last 50 years, new members have shuffled in and out of the band. And now, with Back on Track, the band’s first studio album in almost 20 years, the new incarnation of Pure Prairie League features drummer Scott Thompson, keyboardist Randy Harper, guitarist Jeffrey Zona, bassist Jared Camic, and original member, pedal steel player John David Call.

On the album, waves of guitar flow around tumbling piano notes on the opening track, “The Beginning.” While the song recalls the earliest country pop sounds of Pure Prairie League, the driving guitars lend it a harder rock edge. Zona’s lickety-split lead runs chase Call’s lighting-fast pedal steel licks in a call and response on the bluegrass country number “Picture Perfect Life,” while the lilting rhythms and tender vocals flow dreamily down the river of love on “I Believe.”

“Skipping Stones” is a towering Southern rock anthem, complete with twin lead guitar riffs, and “I’m the Lucky One” delivers a straight-ahead country rock groove. Mat Britain’s steel drums provide the foundation for the Jimmy Buffett-like, Caribbean rhythms of “Price of Love.” The band then delivers a rollicking Cajun bluegrass take on the Lowell George and Keith Godchaux-penned “Six Feet of Snow.” And the album closes with the title track, a funked-up rocker of a road song that embraces the band’s past and looks to its future.

On Back on Track, Pure Prairie League is back, delivering the soaring harmonies, lilting love songs, and rollicking Southern rockers that make up its signature sound.

Pure Prairie League’s Back on Track released Dec. 6 on Pure Prairie League Records.