Crow Music
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Album Summary
Crow was a hard rock and blues-rock outfit out of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and they came roaring onto the scene with this debut long-player in 1969, released on Amaret Records. These cats were the real deal — forged in the crucible of the Midwest bar and ballroom circuit, where you either played hard or you went home. The record captured the band in full flight, blending raw blues-rock grit with the psychedelic and hard rock currents that were electrifying the era, all while the group was grinding away to push their sound beyond regional borders and into the national consciousness. It stands as a genuine snapshot of a band on the rise, recorded with urgency and purpose.
Reception
- The album generated serious regional buzz for Crow across the Midwest, though national chart recognition remained modest at the time of release, as the band's reputation had not yet fully crossed the Mississippi in either direction.
- Critics of the era took note of the album's heavy blues-rock energy and the firepower of the band's instrumental performances, placing them squarely in the company of the hard-driving American rock acts who were rewriting the rulebook at the close of the decade.
- The album laid the groundwork for the band's subsequent singles activity, with 'Evil Woman (Don't Play Your Games with Me)' emerging as their breakout moment and bringing Crow the wider attention this record had been building toward.
Significance
- This album stands as a vital document of late-1960s Midwestern hard rock and blues-rock — a regional sound with its own muscle and identity, wholly distinct from the flower-power psychedelia blooming on the coasts at the same time.
- Crow's work during this period helped plant a flag for Minneapolis as a city capable of producing nationally relevant rock acts, a legacy that would take root and flower magnificently in the decades to come.
- The record sits at a genuine crossroads in rock history, representing an early and honest example of the riff-heavy blues-rock style that would grow up into the hard rock sound of the early 1970s — making it a treasured artifact in the story of how that transition happened.
Tracklist
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A1 Evil Woman —
3:10
-
A2 White Eyes 179
4:13
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A3 Thoughts 158
4:48
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A4 Da Da Song 104
3:19
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A5 Busy Day 194
2:30
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B1 Time To Make A Turn 120
2:47
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B2 Rollin' 120
3:20
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B3 Listen To The Bop (Dedicated To Chuck Berry) —
3:07
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B4 Gonna Leave A Mark 97
2:53
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B5 Sleepy Woman 128
9:55
Artist Details
Crow was a rock band that came together in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the late 1960s, blending hard rock, soul, and blues into a gritty, driving sound that hit hard and cut deep. Their 1969 smash "Evil Woman (Don't Play Your Games with Me)" climbed the national charts and proved that the Midwest had some serious fire in its belly, earning them a place in the conversation alongside the heaviest rock acts of the era. Though they never quite broke through to superstardom, Crow represented that raw, unpolished American rock spirit that kept the music honest and real during a time when the industry was pulling in a thousand different directions.
