Excellent hard guitar rock produced by Lelan Rogers of IA/Elevators fame. Recorded at Sounds of Memphis Studio in Memphis, Tennessee.
Led by singer/bass player Chuck Bennett who under his given name Charles Wayne Avery had previously been a member of Link Wray's Raymen, these guys were apparently based in Oxon Hill, Maryland but recorded their 1969 debut in Memphis at the Sounds of Memphis Studio. Signed by LeLan Rogers' House of the Fox label, 1969's "Hammer" found the band teamed with producer Guy Cameron (Rogers was also credited as the supervisory producer). Powered by the combination of Ronnie Barclay's stinging lead guitar, Bennett's molten rock voice (which frequently put the likes of Paul Rodgers and Robert Plant to shame), and Jack Register's pounding bass, these guys literally had all the finesse of a flying mallet. Forget those write ups going on about this one's psych-influences. There weren't any. Exemplified by tracks like 'Slip Away', the slinky 'Trouble', 'Home', and 'Brown-Eyed Woman' this was hardcore, blues-oriented bar rock - classic American hard rock easily as good as anything in the Bad Company, Faces, Free, Zeppelin catalog, Great melodies, killer guitar, a dynamite rhythm section in the form of drummer G.C. Coleman and bassist Register, and above all Bennett's fantastic voice. The only real disappointment was the band's cover of Edwin Hawkins' 'Oh Happy Day'. Mind you there wasn't anything wrong with their version; it served to showcased Bennett's amazing soul licks, but by the same token their version (complete with gospel chorus) did nothing to improve on the original. To my ears some thirty years after its release this one's still heads above virtually every hard rock album that's come along since. Washington, D.C. dj Charlie Brown's liner notes were humorous - he suggested the band be named 'D.C. Sanitation Department..
- Ronnie Barclay -- lead guitar (1969)
- Chuck Bennett (aka Charles Wayne Avery) (RIP 2009) vocals, bass, keyboards (1969)
- G.C. Coleman (aka Gregory Sylvester Coleman) (RIP 2006) -- drums (1969)
- Mike Previty -- percussion (1969)
- Jack Register -- bass (1969)
- Steve Spencer -- keyboards (1969)
- Pete 'Peaches' Williams -- guitar (1969)
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