Tennessee River Crooks – ‘Tennessee River Crooks’ (1976/2024) – Album Review

Tennessee River Crooks was a band out of Paris, Tennessee and although they had one album, it was produced on a private press and had no major label release. RidingEasy Records licensed the album for an official release and our good friends at Noble Records had an exclusive version printed out exclusive to their store. Their version is what I have here and it was limited to 300 copies on a almost Mint Green colored vinyl. It is listed as Green, but I feel it is more mint green so there you have it.

The band consisted of Jimmy Stewart on bass, Ronnie Waters & Larry Farrar on guitars with Ricky Stewart on drums. Jimmy also handled all the vocals. One of the main song writers on here is Mike Hendrix who also contributed some guitar work and harmony vocals on a lot of song. He was in the band at one time, but only contributed to the recordings at this point. Their sound is pure Southern Rock and the album was mostly recorded with the rhythm tracks live so you would get the feel of the band and how they sounded live. It was recorded, mostly, at Sound Farm in Puryear, Tennessee betwen June and October of 1976 as it states on the back cover. All I can say is that it is another solid Exclusive offered by Noble and why I keep coming back time and again and buying his exclusive. The man knows what he is talking about.

The band’s name came from a friend of theirs name Jerry Crouch. He worked the door at a lot of their gigs and when he collected the money at the door for entry, he placed it in a cigar box for the company Tennessee River Crooks. They shortened it TR Crooks as the other was a mouthful to always say. Whatever you want to call them, you can call them talented musicians and a hell of a band.

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