Critic's pick: Mountain @ Mercy Lounge (Sunday,
August 8, 2004)
by Marc Hirsh
originally published in Nashville Scene, August 5-11, 2004
It’s kind of shocking that Leslie West and company weren’t huger than
they were. They played Woodstock. Bass player Felix Pappalardi was Cream’s
producer and thus knew a thing or two about how to make heavy psychedelic
blues marketable. And they pretty definitively turned the cowbell into a
hard rock instrument three years before Grand Funk thought they came up with
the idea. But then Mountain just kind of fell apart, and to this day, “Mississippi
Queen” doesn’t get the love it deserves from classic rock stations. Pappalardi
died in 1983 and, judging from recent photos, the band’s name no longer quite
describes West’s physique. But Corky Laing from the band’s classic lineup
is still behind the drumkit. And I’ll bet he’s bringing that cowbell. –
Marc Hirsh