I picked up "Truk Tracks" at a yard sale wondering if the guys on the cover were a really the band, or just a bunch on recently unemployed oil workers. In fact, after looking at the song listing, I almost put it back, thinking these guys were just another anonymous country-rock band. And then I noticed that R&B artist Sonny Knight produced most of the album with former Buffalo Springfield drummer Dewey Martin handling about a third of the set. Anyhow, anyone who's looked through the BadCatRecords website will see that I make a lot of substandard purchases. Bands that are hyped and just don't live up to their reputations are a common experience in my music explorations. Luckily, every once in awhile I come across an unknown release that crushes all of my expectations. Meet Truk.

Formed in Oklahoma. the original line-up featured bassist, J. Martin "Moby" Anderson, drummer Danny Cornett, singer George Michael Graham, his brother/keyboardist James Patrick Graham, and guitarist Glenn Ray Townsend. The band was original known as No Large Trucks (the name taken from a sign they saw in a parking lot). They then became Truck. Finally they opted for Truk (the "c" dropped when original drummer Cornett left). By the time the group was signed by Columbia, Cornett had been replaced by former Standells and Hunger! singer/drummer Bill "Willie" Daffern (aka Willie Dee)

Teamed with producer Sonny Knight, the band apparently completed six tracks before starting to work with producer Dewey Martin (Martin was actually listed as co-producer). Martin apparently brought a more spur of the moment, less regimented approach to the sessions and the results included four of the album's standout performances - 'Country Woman', 'Got To Find a Reason', 'Winter's Coming On' and the progressively-tinged 'Sun Castle Magic'. Musically there wasn't much in the way of originality here. The band's forte was straight-ahead, no-frills rock and roll that easily fit in the same mold as mid-Western bands like Grand Funk Railway, Head East, and REO Speedwagon. George Michael Graham had a raw, gritty voice that was perfectly suited for the genre. The Anderson-Daffern rhythm section was explosive. Like the band itself, Anderson's bass work was simple, but highly effective. Check out his work on the closing rocker 'Max'. Unlike most of his contemporaries, James Patrick Graham keyboards were surprisingly understated. Checkout the light touch he brought to his Hammond B3 work on the ballad 'Pretty Lady'. And the icing on the cake came in the form of Glenn Ray Townsend's lead guitar. His thick, sustained chords were uniformly impressive. All hyperbole aside, there wasn't a bad song on this album !!!

BadCatRecords: Truk Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.