Southern
Rock
Southern
rock is a style of music termed in the 1970's. My short
description of southern rock is, quality musicians blending
different musical styles to form their own identity. Depending on
the band, they may place their emphasis among hard rock, blues, county, bluegrass, jazz,
improvisation, etc.
When
southern rock was at the height of its popularity we were heavily into
collecting the records of these bands and seeing their concerts. We
had the opportunity to see Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Outlaws, Dixie Dregs,
The Allman Brothers Band, Marshall Tucker, Charlie Daniels Band, ZZ
Top, and Molly Hatchet, Pure Prairie League, as well as many lesser known artists
when they were at
their peak. Many
of these bands we saw perform more than once.
Southern
rock was not our favorite music of the during the 1970's, but we
enjoyed it plenty. Looking back at this music historically we
will summarize what we consider the best of that period.
Many of
these bands had a different Southern emphasis so we provide the
following generalizations if you are a newcomer.
Hard Rock - Lynyrd Skynyrd, Molly Hatchet
County - Marshall Tucker, The Outlaws, Charlie Daniels
Blues - The Allman Brothers Band, ZZ Top, Marshall
Tucker,
Charlie Daniels
Virtuosity - The Dixie Dregs
Jam - The Allman Brothers Band, Marshall Tucker
Fiddle - Dixie Dregs, Charlie Daniels
Frequently
The Allman Brothers Band are credited with founding Southern Rock.
Really their early albums with Duane Allman are straight blues
with an improvisation, jam flavor. It was after Duane Allman's death
when Dickey Betts took a more dominant role in writing when they
added a country tone to form more of what we consider southern rock.
Below we
list some of the better southern rock bands, which is not
intended to a complete list, but the cream of the crop. We include some suggestions to these bands best
work.
The Allman Brothers Band
Charlie Daniels Band
Dixie Dregs
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Marshall Tucker
The Outlaws
ZZ Top
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If
you are looking for a solid compilation of various solid
Southern rock bands, Southern Rock: Gold is extremely well put
together.
Disc: 1
1. Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd
2. Ramblin Man – The Allman Brothers Band
3. Heard It In A Love Song – Marshall Tucker Band
4. If You Wanna Get To Heaven – The Ozark Mountain Daredevils
5. The South’s Gonna Do It Again – The Charlie Daniels Band
6. Fooled Around And Fell In Love – Elvin Bishop
7. Champagne Jam – Atlanta Rhythm Section
8. Hold On Loosely – .38 Special
9. Flirtin’ With Disaster – Molly Hatchet
10. Highway Song – Blackfoot
11. Guitar Town – Steve Earle
12. Walk Softly On This Heart Of Mine – The Kentucky Headhunters
13. Nothing Matters But The Fever – Sea Level
14. Refried Funky Chicken – Dixie Dregs
15. Mindbender – Stillwater
16. Green Grass And High Tides – The Outlaws
Disc: 2
1. Keep Your Hands To Yourself – Georgia Satellites
2. Only You Know And I Know – Delaney & Bonnie And Friends
3. Midnight Rider – Gregg Allman
4. Keep On Smilin’ – Wet Willie
5. Dixie Chicken – Little Feat
6. There Goes Another Love Song – The Outlaws
7. Street Corner Serenade – Wet Willie
8. Travelin’ Shoes – Elvin Bishop Elvin Bishop
9. So Into You – Atlanta Rhythm Section
10. Coming Home – Johnny Van Zant
11. Don’t Misunderstand Me – Rossington Collins Band
12. Living In A Dream – Arc Angels
13. Please Be With Me – Cowboy
14. Can’t You See – Marshall Tucker Band
15. Freebird – Lynyrd Skynyrd
16. Whipping Post – The Allman Brothers Band |
Southern Rock: Gold |
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| The Allman Brothers Band's are clearly one of the
great successes in rock music. Through the years they have meshed
blues, country, and rock with an emphasis on jamming to the
delight of many satisfied fans.
If you are looking for an introduction to the
Allman Brothers Band, you can't go wrong with The
Allman Brothers Band Gold, two discs of studio material through the 1970's
and some great live tracks.
The Allman Brothers Band are well known for their
superb concert performances, and a result they have numerous live albums
available. We keep track of their newest releases in a more
expansive section. All three recommendations below we
consider essential. Each spans a different period of
their career, and offers a different guitar attack.
We have more in depth coverage of the
Allman
Brothers Band.
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Gold |
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| The Fillmore
Concerts
Duane Allman and Dickey Betts
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First Set
Warren Haynes and Dickey Betts
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Beacon DVD
Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks |
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Charlie Daniels' music meshes a combination of country,
blues, and rock, which is topped off with inferences of bluegrass to
yield a sound of its own.
With an
abundance of good music spread over so many albums we find that one
of the greatest hits collections is a great way to go. There are single, double, and triple disc options. Of
them, his two disc collection seems to have the best balance of
including his essential tracks without going beyond.
Charlie
Daniels title track from his 1976 album Saddle Tramp sure has inferences of the Allman Brothers. One of his better
songs. My favorite though is "The south's Gonna do It
Again."
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Charlie
Daniels on DVD, Volunteer Jam: The Volunteer Jam is the annual homecoming concert for the Charlie Daniels Band in Tennessee in a tradition that goes back over 30 years. This film features the classic CDB line-up performing at the height of their powers in 1975 and focuses primarily on material from their two quintessential albums “Fire
On The Mountain” (1974) and “Nightrider” (1975), which gave them their breakthrough hit “Texas.” The concert also features guest appearances Dickey Betts and Chuck Leavell of the Allman Brothers Band, Jimmy Hall from Wet Willie, Dru Lombar from Grinderswitch and the entire Marshall Tucker Band.
Tracks 1) Whiskey 2) Birmingham Blues 3) Long Haired Country Boy 4) No Place To Go 5) Funky Junky 6) Texas 7) South's Gonna Do It (Again) 8) Orange Blossom Special 9) Twenty-Four Hours 10) The Thrill Is Gone 11) Jelly, Jelly Blues 12) Sweet Mama 13) Mountain Dew
Bonus Features
2007 Interview with Charlie Daniels |
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Dixie Dregs is a band of enormously
talented musicians. Through the years personnel did change,
but it never detracted from yielding first class music. They are led by guitarist Steve Morse who was
voted best overall guitarist by guitar player five times and has
won six Grammy nominations. Their instrumental
music ventures into rock, fusion, bluegrass, jazz,
and even classical. On occasion they even perform some classic rock covers.
One performance I saw they did a
stunning Led Zeppelin medley.
If you are looking for compilation of Dixie
Dregs material, they have two greatest hits releases,
which do not overlap. The 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best
of the Dixie Dregs is from their first three albums, while
The Best of the Dregs: Divided We Stand,
covers the latter period of their career.
The Dixie Dregs two live albums are: The
Greatest Hits Live, which is really a remastered
version of previously titled King Biscuit Presents Dixie Dregs recorded 6/17/79.
The second, Bring Em Back Alive, was recorded in 1992.
Dixie Dregs live just buzz with energy.
Picking up both
greatest hits recordings or both live albums are very good
overviews of the Dixie Dregs. Though, for the ambitious music
collector we favor collecting the individual albums rather than compilations. Not because the collections aren't super, but
there is some good material not included, and the albums have a
good flow to them. Their best studio album that we've heard is What If.
Information about the
Dixie
Dregs / Steve Morse DVD.
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20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best
of the Dixie Dregs |
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The Best of the Dregs: Divided We Stand
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Greatest Hits Live
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Bring Em Back Alive - 1992
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What If |
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Lynyrd Skynyrd is one of the more popular
Southern Rock bands. In our opinion, their lasting appeal is their
great songwriting.
We think their best studio album is Street
Survivors, to the right, released just days before the crash
that took the life of several band members.
Below are three compilation albums that are
single, double and triple in nature. Their three disc box set is
perfect as it includes just about everything a fan could want.
No question, their live album One
More For the Road is warranted as a supplement.
More Lynyrd Skynyrd
content.
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Lynyrd Skynyrd Box Set |
The Essential Lynyrd Skynyrd |
All Time Greatest Hits |
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| Marshall Tucker is one of my favorite
Southern rock bands, and they are at their best live. Finally,
in 2003 they released a live album Stompin'
Room Onlythat
was recorded between 1974 and 1976. We strongly recommend that
album.
Beginning in November 2003, and continuing,
Marshall Tucker have been reissuing their catalog with bonus tracks added
on, usually live performances.
An excellent Marshall Tucker compilation, The
Marshall Tucker Anthology: the First 30 Years. Frequently with chronological
anthology releases, the bands best material is on the first disc and the
second disc just collects dust. While the first disc is certainly
better, the second disc reveals very music strong throughout. This
release generally selects a song or two from nearly all of their albums so it
is a great orientation to their music.
Some additional Tucker resources.
Our Marshall Tucker page
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The Outlaws trademark is a blend of country and rock
with a strong three guitar attack. While Lynyrd Skynyrd had one
lead singer, The Outlaws had several members that would
contribute lead vocal duties. Another trademark is their vocal
blending and harmonies, sort of in the style of the Eagles.
The Outlaws have a superb compilation called The Best of the Outlaws: Green Grass and High Tides. This
includes all the music most fans seek in an Outlaws collection.
The liner notes provide credits, band history, and
photos. Perhaps some fans may want to supplement this with
live versions of the songs, Though their live album Bring
It Back Alive is not the
original band.
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I saw ZZ Top in concert and what struck me
was the amount of power and energy that blasted out of the sound
system from this three piece band from Texas. You'd think they would need a five or six members to
generate that amount of musical force!
Personally, we do not care much for ZZ Top's music as a whole after 1975's Fandango, which is one side live and one side studio. The
album that preceded it, Tres Hombres, is their best
album, in our opinion.
ZZ Top have several compilations and even
offer six of their early albums packaged together at a discount
-- that is to be avoided due to poor remixing.
Finally starting in 2003 some of ZZ Top's
early material was re-issued with good mixes. This begin with
their box-set and that was followed by a two disc compilation,
Rancho Texicano: The Very Best of ZZ Top. They're both
good depending on if you want to super-size or not.
In 2006 re-mastered versions of
Tres Hombres and Fandango with bonus tracks were
released. They could have
done better with the bonus material.
Other: ZZ Top's Greatest Hits
- This 18 track collection emphasizes both their classic
early days, MTV, and beyond.
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Rancho
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| Chrome, Smoke & BBQ: The ZZ Top Box
- Box Set |
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| Tres Hombres |
One Foot In The
Blues
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Fandango |
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