1967/ 1976
Ronnie James Dio: a great voice but in this case without great music. In fact "Carolina Country Ball" is an album that is aged not so good. Due to the music, a sort of Blues Rock with Rock'n'Roll flavor and with tons of Jazzy moments!
The first song is "Carolina Country Ball": Not bad. Only "Carolina Country Ball" is a strange mix of Rock'n'Roll, Blues and Jazz that is aged bad, due to the strange final result: Jazz or Blues? Hmmm...! "L.A. 59" is, vice versa, a good Hard Rock that is only a pure Rock'n'Roll song with good piano and simple guitars. Good Ronnie vocal parts, wuth great choruses (refrain) and interesting guitar solo. "Ain't It All Amusing" is a simple unpretentious Boogie Rock but pretty "wild", so that the paragon with certain Psychedelic Californian Rock is not totally forced. "Happy" is an interesting Jazzy Blues that IMHO, is the song aged more worse in this album, despite being one of the most powerful and best-written, arranged and performed. "Annie New Orleans" is the a good Boogie Rock, simple and elementary. A good song if the '70's were 50's. But '70's are '70's and "Annie New Orleans" is a great song also for '70 's! "Rocking Chair Rock'n'Roll Blues" is a great ballad that remember me Queen's ballads but without the inventive structure of Freddy Mercury. "Rainbow" is a perfect ballad that have his DNA in Folk Rock and Blues but also in Country. In few words "Rainbow" is a great American Folk ballad that is at the same time a great power ballad. Probably (or not, maybe or exactly) "Rainbow" is my preferred song of "Carolina Country Ball". Strange this fact? Maybe... Maybe. "Do The Same Thing" is another Boogie Rock with the same ingredients of other Boogie Rock songs of this album: melodic but aggressive, not technical but with certain magic and feelig. In a few words "Do The Same Thing" is a great song if you love bands similar to MC5 or Steppenwolf (for a general example). "Blanche" is the final composition of "Carolina Country Ball" ansd with "Do The same thing" is part of a double song but it is a song for piano, trombone and voice. Basically is a sort of ballad but in truth is a happy song vaguely Bluesy / Jazzy.
In definitive view "Carolina Country Ball" is a good album if you love '70's American Hard Rock and Ronnie James Dio. But if you are a simple metalhead "Carolina Country Ball" is an album as other albums.