CD review: “The Best of Rascal Flatts LIVE”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Country
Rascal Flatts “The Best of Rascal Flatts LIVE” (Lyric Street Records/Hollywood Records)
“The Best of Rascal Flatts LIVE” serves as a sort of musical time capsule chronicling the superstar country band’s first decade together.
The live album features 10 tracks drawn primarily from the group’s first six albums; the Flatts’ three top 10 hits from their 2010 effort “Nothing Like This” are conspicuously absent.
That’s because for their first 10 years together, the band, which includes Picher-bred guitarist Joe Don Rooney, recorded on Disney Music Group’s Lyric Street Records. When Lyric Street shuttered in 2010, Rascal Flatts moved on to Scott Borchetta’s powerhouse Big Machine Records. Hollywood Records, another Disney imprint, is releasing “The Best of Rascal Flatts LIVE.”
The playlist may be a bit dated, but fans who have fond recollections of one or more of the band’s renowned concerts will probably enjoy reliving those memories with the live album. It opens with the perky party song “Bob That Head,” offers a fervent rendition of the group’s signature song “God Bless the Broken Road” and shows off the Flatts’ trademark tight vocal harmonies on “Still Feels Good.”
Rooney, lead vocalist Gary LeVox and bassist Jay DeMarcus pay earnest tribute to their fans with “Here’s to You,” then get the crowd belting along with the inspirational anthem “Stand” and the heartbroken ballad “These Days.” They close the album with their smash cover of Tom Cochrane’s “Life Is a Highway,” and for an encore, they roll through a couple of classic rock standards — Boston’s “Foreplay/Long Time” and The Edgar Winter Group’s “Free Ride” — in a medley that showcases Rooney’s strong guitar skills.
Running just shy of 45 minutes, “The Best of Rascal Flatts LIVE” clocks in at less than half the length of the band’s usual set. The compilation also has been cobbled together from different concerts — LeVox gives shout-outs to Georgia, California and Florida on various tracks — so it isn’t as cohesive as a live effort taken from a single show.
Still, “The Best of Rascal Flatts LIVE” does a reasonable job channeling the dynamic energy the band creates in concert.
— BAM
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