Fire on the Mountain
Searchin' For a Rainbow
Walkin' & Talkin'
Virginia
Bob Away My Blues
Keeps Me From All Wrong
Bound and Determined
Can't You See (live version)
Released: 1975
Billboard Chart Peak: # 15
Searchin' For a Rainbow was MTB's highest charting album. It yielded the band's first Top 40 hit with Fire on the Mountain, which peaked at # 38. Searchin' for a Rainbow was also released as a single and received considerable airplay. A live version of Can't You See also received enormous airplay on AOR (Album Orientated Stations) radio.
The trilogy of Fire on the Mountain, Searchin' For a Rainbow and Virginia all, lyrically, take you back to the Old West. Each feature Toy Caldwell's steel guitar and harmonious flute solos from Jerry Eubanks. Charlie Daniels plays fiddle on "Fire" and Dickey Betts lays down slide on "Rainbow." Bob Away My Blues places you on a riverbank in the middle of a lazy summer day, fishing pole in hand. It was one of Toy's great loves and he captures the mood perfectly. Keeps Me From All Wrong is a heartfelt tribute to the powers of a woman written by Tommy Caldwell. Backed with Toy's steel guitar and producer Paul Hornsby's piano it is sung with laid back country fashion by Doug Gray - and it's as tasty as homemade biscuits and gravy. Walkin' and Takin' is a kick-ass hoe-down punctuated by Toy's chicken pickin' guitar and Jerry's sassy sax. Bound and Determined is a jazzy number that features one of Toy's most underrated guitar solos to go along with some of Doug's best singing. It really is an example MTB firing on all cylinders, highlighted by the uniqueness each member brought to the band. For added soul Chuck Leavell adds some soul stirring organ riffs. The CD closes out with a live version of Can't You See, taken from the same performance that yielded the live cuts on Where We All Belong. It is perhaps the performance most engrained in the memory of any MTB fan. It certainly captures Tucker at their zenith - live and laying it all on the line. It is that quality that has always endeared MTB fans to the band.
- Craig Cumberland