Live Trucker [PA]

Performer: Kid Rock
Engineer: Kenneth "Pooch" Van Druten
Producer: Kid Rock
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Personnel: Kid Rock (vocals, guitars, keyboards, drums, turntables); Uncle Kracker (vocals, turntables); Joe C (vocals); Jason Krause, Kenny Olson (guitars); R. Smith Curry (pedal steel guitar, dobro); Jimmie Bones (harmonica, keyboards, background vocals); Aaron Julison (electric bass, background vocals); Mike Bradford (electric bass); Stefanie Eulinberg (drums, background vocals); Freddie "Paradime" Beaureguard (turntables, background vocals); Karen Newman, Laura Creamer (background vocals). The sticker on Kid Rock's 2006 LIVE TRUCKER CD warns that the disc includes no bonus tracks, exclusive footage, or remixes, so fans of the Kid that are hungry for new and unreleased material might be disappointed. Yet with the help of his Twisted Brown Trucker Band and a wildly enthusiastic crowd, the Kid lays down his particular brand of "hick-hop" with plenty of honky tonk ferocity and b-boy swagger. "Son of Detroit," "American Bad Ass," and "Picture," a duet with Gretchen Wilson, are only some of the highlights of this live set. Kid Rock may have styled his first live album, Live Trucker, after Bob Seger's classic Live Bullet, paying homage to the artwork right down to the typeface and also choosing to record in his hometown of Detroit, but if Live Bullet caught Seger on the rise, Live Trucker catches Kid on his decline. This isn't a hard-driving, sweaty rock & roll record; this is a Vegas revue, all glam and glitz, with its heart in showbiz. Of course, Kid Rock has always had his tongue planted firmly in his cheek when he went about his self-mythologizing, particularly on his still potent and funny 1998 breakthrough, Devil Without a Cause, but on this live effort recorded largely in August 2004, his joking has turned into inadvertent self-parody. This wasn't the case on his eponymous 2003 effort, which may not have set the charts on fire, but it did capture him in good form, where his rough and rowdy ways still seemed roguishly charming. Here, it's possible to hear the toll that all the partying has taken on him: he sounds hoarse and winded, and when he trades lines with his keyboardist, it seems as if it's because he doesn't have the energy to finish the song, not because it makes for a better show. And while the Twisted Brown Trucker Band sound tight, they also sound too slick, never really giving this white trash rock & roll the grit that it needs. Of course, the album isn't helped by its ridiculously front-loaded sequencing, where "Bawitadaba," "Cowboy," and "Devil Without a Cause" follow back to back in the first four tracks, and his next biggest hit, "Picture" (here performed with Gretchen Wilson, not Sheryl Crow), also appears in the first half of the record; with the exception of "Only God Knows Why," the second half consists largely of new material, or lesser-known hits. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Rolling Stone (p.94) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[B]etween sturdy blue-collar stuff like 'Son of Detroit' and muscular grooves from his crack band, LIVE TRUCKER maintains an old-school party-rock vibe."

Self-proclaimed "King of White Trash" (and proud of it), Kid Rock took his rap-meets-rock-meets-country hybrid to the top of the charts. After opening as a bratty hip-hop artist in the Beastie Boys mode in the early-'90s, Kid came back with a vengeance, diminutive rapper Joe C by his side, on the 1998 smash DEVIL WITHOUT A CAUSE. With a pimp/stud schtick worked to the hilt, he's an outspoken rock & roll spotlight-grabber the likes of which hasn't been seen since the glory days of David Lee Roth. He even betrayed his mellower side on the trail ballad and 2002 hit duet with Sheryl Crow, "Picture."

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