Marauder is the fifth studio album of Southern rock

Southern rock

Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music, and genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues, and is focused generally on electric guitar and vocals...

 band Blackfoot

Blackfoot (band)

Blackfoot is a Southern rock musical ensemble from Jacksonville, Florida organized during 1970. Though they are primarily a Southern rock band, they were known also as a hard rock act....

, released in 1981.

The album continued in the same vein as their previous successes, "Strikes" and "Tomcattin`". Opening up with the heavy "Good Morning", and including the excellent ballad "Diary Of A Workingman", "Marauder" showcases a range of depth and variety allied to their tried and trusted Southern rock. "Marauder" also sported the hit "Fly Away", which reached #42, and another triumphant Shorty Medlocke

Shorty Medlocke

Shorty Medlocke was an American blues and hard rock musician and composer.A descendant of the Blackfoot Confederacy, he is the grandfather of Blackfoot and Lynyrd Skynyrd lead guitarist Rickey Medlocke....

 appearance on the energetic "Rattlesnake Rock n' Roller", this time with a spoken introduction and banjo

Banjo

In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...

 solo. Album closer "Searching" is another entry to the Southern rock canon of slow building guitar epics, in the manner of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird", and their own "Highway Song". "Marauder" was the last of their albums that were purely hard, driving, rock - they unsuccessfully introduced synthethizers to their sound through the 1980s, and their popularity waned. Eduardo Rivadavia describes "Marauder" as "...one of the band's best hard rockers to date", and "the last great Blackfoot album".

The band officially broke up amid declining fortunes in the mid-80's, though Medlocke resumed recording under the name Blackfoot a few years later. He is now, again, a member of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Track listing

1. "Good Morning" (3:36) (Medlocke
   Rickey Medlocke
   Rickey Medlocke is an American musician best known as the frontman/guitarist for the southern rock band Blackfoot and, more recently, as a guitarist for Lynyrd Skynyrd...
   
   /Spires)
2. "Payin' For It" (3:38) (Medlocke/Spires)
3. "Diary of a Workingman" (5:36) (Medlocke/Spires)
4. "Too Hard To Handle" (4:02) (Medlocke/Spires)
5. "Fly Away" (2:58) (Medlocke/Spires)
6. "Dry Country" (3:42) (Medlocke/Spires)
7. "Fire Of The Dragon" (4:05) (Medlocke/Spires)
8. "Rattlesnake Rock 'N' Roller" (4:01) (Medlocke/Medlocke
   Shorty Medlocke
   Shorty Medlocke was an American blues and hard rock musician and composer.A descendant of the Blackfoot Confederacy, he is the grandfather of Blackfoot and Lynyrd Skynyrd lead guitarist Rickey Medlocke....
   
   /Spires)
9. "Searchin'" (5:43) (Medlocke/Spires)

Personnel

Band:

• Rick Medlocke - lead vocals, guitars
• Charlie Hargrett - guitar
• Greg T. Walker - bass guitar, keyboards, vocals
• Jakson "Thunderfoot" Spires - percussion, drums, vocals

Additional musicians:

• Henry Weck - percussion, engineer
• Shorty Medlocke - banjo, harmonica
• Magic Rooster - horn, keyboards
• Pat McCaffrey - horn, keyboards
• David Cavender - trumpet
• Donna Davis - backing vocals
• Pamela Vincent - backing vocals