Black Oak Arkansas
Unsung Heroes PURPLE PYRAMID
Southern rock masters’ first new album in 20 years re-ignites the old fire.
It’s easy to forget that Black Oak Arkansas strode through the 70s as one of the giants in the southern rock bear pit, standing right alongside Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers as the very best around. Led by larger-than-life frontman Jim ‘Dandy’ Mangrum, Black Oak not only inspired many who followed in their yee-haw wake, but also other massive American bands; even Van Halen owe something to them, because there can be little doubt David Lee Roth’s stage persona owed much to Jim Dandy.
But BOA’s stock has plummeted in recent years, and Unsung Heroes is actually the first new studio album from them since 1999’s The Wild Bunch, when they were known as Jim Dandy’s Black Oak Arkansas. So has the long wait since the end of the last century been worth it? Hell yeah!
bristles with the easy swagger that so marked them out in their heyday. With Dandy and original guitarist Rickie Lee Reynolds still in tandem after more than half a century, the
