BRING 'EM BACK ALIVE

Okay, maybe I'm being too picky here, but The Dixie Dregs without Andy West just isn't quite The Dixie Dregs. Dave LaRue is an exceptional bassist, and he keeps up with West's original basslines spectacularly (except on The Dregs best song ever, "Odyssey", where he skimps a bit), he doesn't attack the songs with the ferocity West did. LaRue tends to mostly sounds like a hundred other great, but nondescript bassists. Maybe it's the engineering, but that's how it sounds to me.

The other fault I find in this album is the engineering in general. The drums and violin reverb a bit too much, and it makes the louder sections, of which there are many, get washed out.

But aside from that, the song selection is almost perfect, covering most of the best songs on the Dregs albums. Only missing is one of the blazing fast bluegrass tunes. Morse, Morgenstein, Dr. Sloan and Lavitz are all as great as ever here. And LaRue manages to shine on "Assembly Line".

Well worth buying.