Artist The Black Crowes

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The Black Crowes

It’s a wake-up call to your own mortality that classic-rock revivalists The Black Crowes are now old enough to be simply “classic rock.” As befitting both that road-wizened maturity and its unwavering loyalty to the ’70s, the group’s new Before The Frost…—and digital-only companion …Until The Freeze—is one of those legendary “double live” albums, recorded last year in front of a small gathering of diehards in Levon Helm’s famed Woodstock barn. The setting obviously inspired the band, as its loose, country-and-blues-fed rock hasn’t sounded this confident in years (certainly not on last year’sWarpaint), making nods to everyone from disco-era Rolling Stones (“I Ain’t Hiding”) to The Allman Brothers—two bands it’s now joined in the rock pantheon.

Updated 09/30/2009