Carson - On The Air / Blown (1972-73) [2000]

They were known earlier as Carson County Band. Their work was wide-ranging, but can best be described as boogie rock.

The “Travelling South” 45 saw the band extend beyond their earlier strictly-blues format on the A-side which was notable for a dual-guitar lead riff that leads into a passage of superb slide guitar playing. The flip side was a strong blues song with lots of riffs and superb slide.

Their debut album, ‘Blown’, was a solid effort full of wild bluesy hard rock. It's notable for Sleepy Greg Lawrie's slick slide guitar work and sported a cover with striking (but simple) sci-fi imagery. It contained a version of ‘Boogie’, which differed considerably from the single. The material ranged from powerful numbers like this to laid-back blues evidenced in ‘Up In Queensland’ and ‘Sunday In The City’ with a rock'n'jazz offering in ‘Rock And Roll Game’ and an instrumental, ‘Banana Power’, providing further diversity.

By 1973, they'd lost their sense of direction, as evidenced on ‘On The Air’. If you're into blues though, there's still a lot of relaxed playing to be heard here. There are some good guitar licks on Elmore James' ‘Dust My Broom’ and another version of ‘Boogie’, whilst ‘Dingo’ and ‘Laid-back Feel’ were good mood pieces. The album is a document of their performance at the 1973 Sunbury Rock Festival.