Thyrty: 30th Anniversary Collection

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Lynyrd Skynyrd

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Lynyrd Skynyrd commemorates the 30th anniversary of their debut album with the release of "Thyrty", a collection that spans Skynyrd's entire career from 1970 up to the present including music from every album the band has ever released.

"Thyrty" includes such Skynyrd classics as "Gimme Three Steps", "Workin' For MCA", "What's Your Name", "That Smell" and the immortal "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Free Bird". There are also tracks from the recent years of the band with Johnny Van Zant as vocalist. It's truly amazing to hear the similarities between the voices of Ronnie and Johnny. One would almost think it was the same person singing all the songs on this compilation.

For die-hard Skynyrd fanatics, "Thyrty" includes one unreleased track from 1970 entitled "Blues Medley" which is a 10-minute stellar blues jam featuring a youthful Ronnie Van Zant singing his heart out along with some jaw-dropping guitar work from Allen Collins and Gary Rossington. This compilation is almost worth it for this track alone.

This latest Lynyrd Skynyrd compilation is a definitive retrospective of Jacksonville, Florida's greatest band. If you don't own any of the other many Skynyrd compilations out there, "Thyrty" is definitely one to have. You get music from every era of the band plus an rare unreleased track and a CD booklet loaded with great photos and a brief but detailed history of the band. Definitely Essential.

Thyrty is a very poor representation of one of the world's greatest bands. If you are looking to get a variety of Skynyrd in one fell swoop, skip Thyrty and go for a couple of the original albums -- Pronounced, Second Helping, Street Survivors, One from the Road -- instead. It will cost the same and there will be no letdowns.

There are several flaws in this album. The most glaring is the song order. It starts out great with Sweet Home Alabama, but instantly nose dives with an obscure outtake that while not bad is also very mellow and not the signature Skynyrd sound. This is followed by another obscure, slow blues number that is also an outtake. There is a reason these songs never made it onto an album. They should have been saved for much later in the collection or a different collection of similar matrial. By the time the blues cut ends, 15 min. have passed and the momentum and kick of typical Skynyrd is totally gone. Down South Jukin starts the momentum again but once again the next song is an obscure acoustic tune. Finally, the first CD rocks out with 5-6 tunes from Pronounced and Second Helping only to end with another outtake.

The second CD starts out great, but here is the next flaw. Most of the tunes on this CD are from the reunion tour in 87 and the "new" Skynyrd fronted by Johnny Van Zandt. There is no way to know this until you open up the CD. The flow also sucks on the second half of this CD.

Thyrty could have been incredible if the song order had been done differently - either cronological or by simply putting the outtakes together on the second CD along with the newer stuff.

Take my advise and get the original albums. They rock beginning to end!