The 1981 Listening Post - Bandera - Knights

 Reviewed by Rod Brogan

Released: 1981 Bandera Knights Genre: Southern Rock Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Highlights: Illegal Blame It On The Full Moon If Ronnie Van Zant's 1979 death was the beginning of the end for the Southern Rock that reached it's commercial height in the 1970s with the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd, no one told these guys. In fact, they may have been troubled label MCA's attempt at keeping the music, and the money, going. (Read the lyrics to Skynyrd's "Working For MCA" to get a feel for what they thought of the Yankee slickers who signed them.) Comprised of session players from Nashville who were originally a backing band for others artists' showcase nights, and fronted by singer/songwriter/guitarist Lore Orion, Bandera toured a while but broke up when their debut album flopped. This is Orion's band, and he's the legacy of this group; in the years since, Orion's songs have been covered by Bill Anderson, David Rogers, Waylon Jennings, and Tim McGraw, who recorded two of Lore's songs on 2002's 'Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors' album. Album opener Billie The Kid owes more than a note or three to Johnny B. Goode in it's melody line, before a jangly country rock chorus over a walking bass line and driving 4 on the floor beat. Illegal shows the genre's blues roots, especially throughout the melodic pentatonic solo, combined with harder drums and twin guitars leads on the fadeout. While Illegal may be the song McGraw chose, album closer Blame It On The Full Moon is the real gem here, with soulful vocal harmonies and an LP's worth of dueling guitar licks. It's the type of track that you listen to and wonder: "Why isn't this better known?" So what happened? Was Bandera's failure to chart the result of a label that couldn't get out of its own way? Did the band just form too late in the commercial life cycle of Southern Rock? Did they miss out on MTV just a few years later, unlike ZZ Top with their iconic looks and videos? Or is it simply that minus the jazzy jamming of the Allman Brothers, and the more in-your-face rebellious lyrics of Skynyrd, Bandera were just a little too vanilla? Orion's fans may just blame it on the full moon, crack open a beer, and sit back and enjoy this little known treasure.