The Alabama State Troupers

In 1971 former Mar-Keys member Don Nix assembled the Alabama State Troupers, an expansive big-band soul ensemble. That same year Elektra Records issued his solo album Living by the Days, after which he recruited a touring unit that featured Lonnie Mack—later supplanted by Furry Lewis—plus Jeannie Greene and the Mt. Zion Band and Choir. The musicians undertook an extensive national itinerary that carried them through the South and West before reaching California, originally to support Nix’s record, yet the concerts quickly gained independent momentum, especially once Lewis, a seasoned blues artist with more than forty years of experience, began opening the shows. Elektra captured highlights from these dates on the 1972 double-LP live set The Alabama State Troupers Road Show, a 21-song collection drawn directly from the road. The group dissolved shortly afterward, though its reputation remained strong enough to prompt an Australian CD issue of Live for a Moment in 2005.