# Southern Rock



## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

With the appreciated encouragement from Strange Magic, here is a thread to celebrate Southern Rock.

Other than Lynyrd Skynyrd, my initiation to this genre came from a mid-seventies LP entitled South's Greatest Hits, back in 1978 or thereabouts. It contains the following tracks.


The Allman Brothers BandRamblin' Man 3:37 The Charlie Daniels BandSouth's Gonna Do It Again 4:12-Elvin BishopFooled Around And Fell In Love 2:57-OutlawsThere Goes Another Love Song 2:49 -The Marshall Tucker BandFire On The Mountain 3:06-Gregg AllmanMidnight Rider 3:20-Atlanta Rhythm SectionDoraville 3:36-Lynyrd SkynyrdSweet Home Alabama 3:36-The Amazing Rhythm AcesThird Rate Romance 3:19 -Dr. JohnRight Place, Wrong Time 2:50-Wet WillieKeep On Smilin' 3:25

Sorry about the formatting.

Of these, I've investigated the Allman's, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dr John and Wet Willie at some point or other over the last 40 years (  ) and I plan to give The Outlaws and The Marshall Tucker Band a shot in due course. What a beautiful song is 'Fire on the mountain'.

What do you like? Why do you like it? Are there any top drawer 1970s southern rock greats missing from this collection? What are your favourite albums from this genre during the 1970s?


----------



## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Only from the 70s? Molly Hatchet deserves a mention (though I only like a couple songs). 
Doobies? 
ZZ Top (La Grange is masterful)

I mentioned the Drive-By Truckers in the other thread, who are clearly Southern Rock. 
Social Distortion was a California punk band that adopted a Southern sound (listen to Prison Bound, the song and the album).

My favorite is the Allman Brothers, but I like Skynyrd and Marshall Tucker Band.

I like a lot of stuff that borders with Southern Rock: Outlaw Country, Alt-Country, Country-Rock. But Sweetheart of the Rodeo is not Southern Rock.


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Black Oak Arkansas are my favourites - the live version of 'Hot and Nasty' from the _Raunch & Roll_ album should be in every Southern Rock compilation. The country-ish 'Uncle Elijah' and the eccentric 'When Electricity Came To Arkansas' (both from the debut album) showed they weren't all one-dimensional boogie bluster like what the band's many critics derided them for. To add to that they also did a fine cover of 'Taxman' and produced a really good ballad in 'Strong Enough To Be Gentle'.

A lot of people were put off by Jim Dandy's foghorn vocals - he may have played the rube a bit but his delivery suited the material perfectly and it always makes me chuckle when I see old footage of him strutting about the stage like a barnyard rooster (later vocalists such as David Lee Roth probably took a few notes there). They also worked hard - by 1976 they had shoehorned nine studio albums into five years and played hundreds of gigs. It couldn't last - by the time of _Ain't Life Grand_ in 1976 the law of diminishing returns was showing and their heyday was gone.

I'm happy to be contradicted but I think BOA were the first Southern Rock band to have a three-guitar line-up, and can you name another group whose singer occasionally played a washboard? :lol:


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

I welcome Wood's creation of this thread, and hope to learn of and hear more gems of SR. Since there are quite a number of groups that fall into the SR category, let's at first keep our individual recommendations to our handful of 1 or 2 or maybe 3 absolute favorite songs per group, so that nobody is overwhelmed with an undigestable overload. Meanwhile, I'll put my thinking hat on--one styled upon SRV or Ronnie Van Zant's headgear.


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

The Doobie Brothers are from San Jose California. If you're gonna include Dr. John, then you gotta put Fats Domino in there, and Leon Russell, and Johnny Winter.


----------



## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

Gregg Allman-These Days

This is one of the only real country songs that I like that isn't like some of the Southern Rock I like (Allman Brothers when they tend to be innovative). But I do like this song a lot, it just seems stripped of a lot of cultural artifacts and is more or less a folk song with some country overtones. I haven't heard a lot of this kind of music (country or Southern Rock, but I do like when honest sensibilities show through). This song manages to be mournful without being depressing or dark. It's more or less saying, "life is good, you're worth it, get your act together."


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

While we're adding names and stretching the boundaries and definitions of Southern Rock, we can also consider a New Orleans-Gulf Coast-Bayou subdivision. In that subdivision, I would put Joan Osborne's _Relish_ album front and center: it is a most remarkable evocation of Low Country Voodoo mood and mystique, and one of my all-time favorite albums of non-classical. Maria McKee, both as the founder/lead singer of Lone Justice and in her own solo career, has explored southern and, specifically, New Orleans themes also. Rather than merely a place, the South maybe is a state of mind......


----------



## Bluecrab (Jun 24, 2014)

I came of age in Norfolk, VA in the late 60s-early 70s. I had the good fortune to see the original Allman Brothers Band (when Duane Allman and Berry Oakley were still alive) about 5 or 6 times in local venues - those guys liked Norfolk for some reason. They pretty much created the whole Southern Rock genre. I'm a bit surprised that the only cut by them on the album that Wood mentions is _Ramblin' Man_, since by then Duane was dead. Any number of cuts from their first 4 albums would have been more representative to me of their original sound - think of cuts like _Black Hearted Woman_, _Whipping Post_, _Dreams_, _Midnight Rider_, the fantastic _Leave My Blues at Home_, _Blue Sky_, _Little Martha_, _One Way Out_... the list gets long pretty quickly. Even going on 50 years later, I can still say that they were the best rock band I ever saw, bar none.


----------



## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

.................................


----------



## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

gotta love a band that names a tune "A minor" and its southern rock!


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Some more Southern Rock--this time a reflective song by Maria McKee and Lone Justice: _Dixie Storms_. Lone Justice is often characterized by the neologism Cowpunk, but they fell at the junction of Country, Southern, and Alternative, and thus can be appropriated into several genres. But despite Lone Justice's success on stage, she found the group confining, and, upon embarking on a solo career, McKee's songwriting exploded by several orders of magnitude in originality and fervor, as her eponymous first solo album convincingly demonstrates. The great mystery for me (and her) is her relative obscurity compared with her contemporary and equal in both performance and songwriting skills, PJ Harvey.


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

More from the Allmans: to again quote my friend Morimur, If you don't like this, you must be dead!


----------



## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

Duane's daughter, Galadrielle, has a book out about her dad. "Please Be With Me". nice read.
"we got a little number from our first album,, Berry starts it off".....and then they follow this tune w/ Mountain Jam!!


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Butch Trucks died today. http://consequenceofsound.net/2017/...and-drummer-of-allman-brothers-band-has-died/


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

^
^

Oh, that's too bad - I read somewhere that he was the main peacemaker within the group, especially during the gradual deterioration of the relationship between Dickey Betts and Gregg Allman.


----------



## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

Tom Petty for his straight forward rock songs (with a bit of weirdness here and there) and his nasal southern drawl.

Little Feat; gonna dig up the abums I've got, It's been years since I've played them.


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Little Feat was a Los Angeles band. The genesis of the band came out of Frank Zappa's Mothers. Lowell George, and Roy Estrada.


----------



## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

starthrower said:


> Butch Trucks died today. http://consequenceofsound.net/2017/...and-drummer-of-allman-brothers-band-has-died/


3 gone now....


----------



## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

"butch trucks- jai johnny johnson-dickie betts-berry oakley-greg allman and i'm duane allman good night."~


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Time to crank some Fillmore East! Stormy Monday is my favotite.


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Trucks committed suicide. He was suffering serious financial problems.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4157864/Allman-Brothers-drummer-Butch-Trucks-shot-head.html


----------



## yetti66 (Jan 30, 2017)

Little Feat mixed a New Orleans upbeat groove with an individual singer/ songwriter (L George). Add in George's voice and incredible slide guitar work and you have one of the most overlooked bands ever.

Duane and Lowell had very different slide guitar techniques/ sounds and the contrast is far more interesting than comparing Beck to Clapton or Page. Slide is a much more personal and unique tone, especially in the hands of Ry Cooder, Lowell George, Duane Allman, and Bonnie Rait.


----------



## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

starthrower said:


> Little Feat was a Los Angeles band. The genesis of the band came out of Frank Zappa's Mothers. Lowell George, and Roy Estrada.


I wasn't 100% sure they'd qualify as southern rock when I typed that, but they had some elements of that southern "feel", at least to my ears.
Is Southern Rock purely defined by state and if so, which ones ?


----------



## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

I'm not from the States and don't know the geography that well but shouldn't Creedence Clearwater Revival be mentioned? Maybe not from their location (San Francisco Bay Area I read) but music-wise.


----------



## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

Casebearer said:


> I'm not from the States and don't know the geography that well but shouldn't Creedence Clearwater Revival be mentioned? Maybe not from their location (San Francisco Bay Area I read) but music-wise.


CCR a great band for its time. let me share 3 tunes. dont think CCR is a sourheren rock band




skinner band








ccr has a different sound


----------



## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

I'm not to be the judge of their southernness but it sure sound southern to my ears.
















What am I missing?


----------



## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

Casebearer said:


> I'm not to be the judge of their southernness but it sure sound southern to my ears.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


----------

