Mountain Bus - Sundance (1971)

Mountain Bus to amerykański zespół z Chicago założony w 1970 roku. Charakterystyczną cechą tego regionu było to, że większość grup grała tak zwany chicagowski blues, ale Mountain Bus byli jednym ze szlachetnych wyjątków. Na twórczość gupy zdecydowany wpływ miały dwie inne wielkie amerykańskie kapele: The Grateful Dead i Quicksilver Messenger Service. Wpływ to nawet za słabe określenie. Muzycy wydali tylko jeden album - Sundance - dla wytwórni Good Records. Podobno istnieje też druga nagrana płyta, ale nie wydana do tej pory. Podwodem rozwiązania zespołu było uwikłanie się w proces z muzykami z zespołu Mountain. Tragiczny i nieoczekiwany koniec.

Bill Kees - guitar
Ed Mooney - guitar
Tom Jurkens - vocal
Steve Krater - drums
Lee Sims - drums
Craig Takehara - bass, banjo

The fiasco of the lawsuit against Mountain Bus and Good Records by the people who represented Mountain really obscures the fact that the band created some fabulous, atmospheric and ambient music that at times bears a striking resemblence to the music being created by the Grateful Dead during the same period. Nothing, however, can obscure excellent songs, and Sundance is full of them. Like the Grateful Dead, Mountain Bus had a communal-like closeness and were part of a countercultural community, and like the Dead, their music was a composite of rock, country, bluegrass, folk and blues components, with perhaps a slightly more predominant country influence to the Dead's bluegrass. The two bands also had tremendous improvisatory playing capabilities in common, although Sundance might be a somewhat better example of a band getting their live dynamic down on tape in the studio than the Grateful Dead did on any of their early studio recordings before 1970. Most of the songs on the album are band-composed and are studies in shifting dynamics and laidback, loping playing that sounds, more than anything else, like good-time fun. "Rosalie" is a gentle, acoustic country swinger, with Tom Jurkens sounding so much like Jerry Garcia that even hardcore Deadheads would be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the two, but the songs also vary from succinct pop and country tunes to lengthy jams that can be otherworldly and soulful or can simply smoke, The song-quality does vary, but overall Sundance makes the early termination of Mountain Bus a minor tragedy. ~ Stanton Swihart, All Music Guide

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