Reviewed by Paul Poulton

The Goodmans, once known as The Happy Goodman Family, knew how to have fun on stage; the audience at this 1974 Texas concert genuinely seem to be enjoying themselves. The family troupe have little contests with each other seeing who can sing successive verses a semitone higher than the previous verse. And although the singers are dressed in the formal TV attire of the day, frilly shirts and velvet evening jackets, the stiffness of the stage-wear doesn't hinder the relaxed stage presence the group have. A young stick-like Aaron Wilburn (now a portly US comic, who tells gags about being plump) sings "Pickin'". It's a Clarence Carter, "Patches" type song which Aaron uses to pull at our heart strings for all he's worth. His mother had to go without new shoes for a year so he could have a guitar at the age of 13. It turns out that Aaron's mama's sacrifice paid off, he's quite a guitar picker. In fact the band show their wares early on in the concert, guitars, lap-steel, piano and drums playing an instrumental tune called, "I Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now", they play with skill and some flair. The flair isn't really needed though when The Happy Goodmans take to the stage. Their songs seem formulaic and based around three chords, the band handle the songs with ease and maybe some weariness. The intensity of the songs is fairly consistent most of them being high octane in a Southern gospel sort of way, which isn't always easy to listen to. I wanted a break from the full-steam-ahead singing, maybe some finesse and some added dynamics would have helped. The sound quality is not hot, but acceptable. The 16 song concert was for me an interesting look back in time, but not something I would want to do very often.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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