Your Friday evening playlist to shake off the dust of the work week! Southern Blues Hard Psychedelic Classic Jam Band Rock!
Playlist links
Playlist Freewheeling Friday! Back Down South! youtube
Playlist Freewheeling Friday! Back Down South! pandora
Playlist Freewheeling Friday! Back Down South! spotify
Neil Young exclaimed once ” It’s all one song!”, and that’s what Rock’n’Roll is all about. People try to categorize and label things to fit their own narrow perspective. Yet the lines are all blurry, the styles bleed into each other, and all blood is red. Long ago in mystical times, Rock’n’Roll crawled out of the mud in the shape of the blues somewhere in the darkest depths of the Mississippi Delta. On its journey it began to inhale and ingest every form of music that crossed its path and created a soundscape as diverse as the human race. Yet all streams would intertwine through their one common ancestor and by defying gravity flow back into the blues.
Folk used to be folk, the Blues used to be the Blues, Country was both Country and Western, and Rock’n’Roll (despite being derived from the Blues) used to be just that, Rock’n’Roll. Now they all share elements of each other despite how they are labeled. The Blues is Southern Rock, Southern Rock is Hard Rock, Hard Rock is Classic Rock, Classic Rock is Country Rock, Country Rock is Folk Rock, Folk Rock is Psychedelic Rock, Psychedelic Rock is Jam Band Rock, Jam Band Rock is Southern Rock, and Southern Rock is the Blues. Its all come full circle.
Blues Meets Southern Rock
Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band – Slow Ride
Back in the day when you still had record stores some shops would place Kenny Wayne Shepherd strictly in the blues section. Now Kenny Wayne truly has his own sound, but his chops were definitely inspired by another man who would walk that fine line between Rock and Blues, Stevie Ray Vaughan. In the wrong record store Stevie might find a similar fate. In my younger years I was not much of a straight blues fan, something that has luckily changed over time. Needless to say, if these two weren’t placed in both the Blues and Rock / Pop section I would assume the store just didn’t have them. In the case of Kenny Wayne, I wouldn’t have even known he existed. Thankfully my brother mentioned him once when discussing new music and I was able to search him out despite this handicap.
Kenny Wayne is well regarded for his straight blues chops. Yet I’d declare his Trouble Is album to be full on Rock, with many of the songs even crossing over into Southern Rock. Is the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band a Southern Rock band? I don’t know, I’ll leave that up to you to decide. However, the fast paced guitar wailing of Slow Ride would definitely fit into that genre, even with Noah Hunt‘s deep powerful vocals falling into any and all categories. Label them as you will, I’ll call it Rock’n’Roll.
Lynyrd Skynyrd – Working For MCA
Now nobody needs to argue that Lynyrd Skynyrd is Southern Rock, they basically defined the genre. But if released in this day in age, many of their songs could be labeled as country. And that really ain’t a bad thing. Southern Rock after all combines many elements of Country with the Blues and Rock’n’Roll. They were certaintly capable of all 3 if you listen to The Ballad of Curtis Low, I Know A Little, or their hard rockin’ track Workin’ For MCA. In the seventies Outlaw Country was making inroads into Rock, and many a Rock’n’Roller was incorporating Country elements into their songs, yet nobody would ever declare Waylon Jennings or The Eagles to be Southern Rock. That’s its own brand and you know it when you hear it.
Workin’ For MCA has always been one of my favorite Skynyrd tracks, mainly due to its hard rockin’ riff and driving beat, and the fun lyrics about Ronnie smilin’ at that Yankee slicker with a big ol’ southern grin.
The Allman Brothers Band – Hoochie Coochie Man
Skynyrd defined Southern Rock, but The Allman Brothers Band basically created it. Yet their sound really transcends many genres. They came of age in the 60s when the music world was exploding in many colors. Listening to their extended jamming on Live at the Fillmore East you know they had to be hittin’ the note with the hippy bands of that era. After all, the scene coming out of San Francisco was the one charging the way with never ending songs. The Allman Brothers took the freak bands’ joy of experimentation and combined it with their southern sensibilities. With that and their love of the Blues, R’n’B, and the sounds of the British Invasion they created a brand new style which bands still feed off to this day. Hoochie Coochie Man is their fast paced take on the Muddy Waters classic, giving it their own groove and rhythm, like rowing a canoe down a wild flowing stream. An absolute fun joy ride.
Larkin Poe – Back Down South
Larkin Poe combine their stomping Blues style with a clapping beat and lyrics about the rocking roots of the south in Back Down South. The lead guitar of Tyler Bryant is pure Southern Rock, sending Megan Lovell‘s lap steel down the same path. They pay homage to the southern legends who came before, from Little Richard to the Allman Brothers. They know their roots and do a great job honoring them with their own original Southern Blues Rock style.
Hill Country Revue – Going Down
Going Down is apparently a widely covered song from Freddy King. Hill Country Revue recorded the only version I know. Every time I get in an elevator that has a voice command saying “going down” this damn song pops into my head. Thank God they made a kick ass version. This tune rocks out with a modern feel somewhere between Southern and Hard Blues Rock. All ingredients combined make for some awesome sauce.
Rats On The Locomotive
Aerosmith – Rats In The Cellar
The most fun I have when Djing happens when I can find two bands whose songs feed brilliantly off each other. Rocks is probably Aerosmith‘s hardest rocking album, laying the groundwork for many hard and heavy acts to come. No band seemed to capture this released ferocity more than Guns’n’Roses. Aerosmith was the hardest rocking band of the late seventies, and G’n’R of the late 80s and early 90s, kicking the known establishment in its face with their heavy riffs and renegade lyrics. I always love to combine Rats in the Cellar with Locomotive. Both meld perfectly together in spirit and style, though neither sound the same and maintain their own identity. Hard fast paced Rock’n’Roll with blistering guitars, driving beats and take no prisoner vocals.
Guns’n’Roses – Locomotive
Led Zeppelin Meets The New Millenium
Black Mountain – The Way To Gone
The children of Led Zeppelin are many, though in the case of Black Mountain and Blues Pills the influences are many. Yet the Zep has to be regarded as the godfather of their style. They laid the groundwork with their combination of Rock, Folk, Blues and North African influences. Both Black Mountain and Blues Pills exhibit that style of combined genres and add their own varying influences and experiences of country and age to produce a fresh and original catalog all their own. Next to Zeppelin you can hear the influences of Jefferson Airplane and Black Sabbath in the style of Black Mountain, while Blues Pills gets the led out with the faster pace of Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, and various Krautrock giants. The Way to Gone and Elements of Things are starkly different from each other, yet both embrace the sound of the free loving 60s and 70s viewed through the lens of the new Millenium.
Blues Pills – Elements Of Things
Heartless Bastards – Valley Of Debris
Another one of my favorite combinations is Valley of Debris from Heartless Bastards and Four Sticks from Led Zeppelin. They complement each other perfectly and create a synergy of old and new, ’70s and 2000s. They both catch a rolling rhythm driving the guitar soundscape, and lyrics that create a sense of urgency. You feel like time is running away while you are being whirled around a spiraling waterspout of mystic psychedelia. The drums and voice are centerstage until the guitars burst through the walls of water and mist. You whirl and twirl in ecstasy until the quick end sends you hurling back into the now, only to begin with the next song again.
Led Zeppelin – Four Sticks
Southern Mystical Jamming
Moe. – Plane Crash
Moe. knows their Rock’n’Roll. You can hear influences from all over the Rock universe in their style. At times they even combine Caribbean sounds into the mix, and many times that signature southern style chugging train riff. Southern Rock often sounds like a steam engine climbing its way through the Blue Ridge Mountains.
You can hear that train fighting its way through the hills on Plane Crash, though this time it isn’t a steam engine, but a high speed European rail train. And the Blue Ridge Mountains have become the Catskill Mountains of New York. The train suddenly morphs into a learjet flying through turbulent skies, thunder and lightning crashing all around in a psychedelic sky. It finds its true form again steel wheels on steel tracks. Your train turns into a fast moving Camarro speeding through the Catskills, gaining speed around every curve. It hits that perfect speed and stretch where not even the state troopers can catch you anymore. Plane Crash combines the adventurous jam sound of the Allman Brothers, the blistering guitar lead massacres of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Outlaws, and the heavy rocking edge of North East American Hard Rock. Jam Rock at its best.
John Butler Trio – Mist
Had to throw this little instrumental into the mix. Hope you enjoy.
Marshal Tucker Band – A New Life
If any Southern Rock band can in any way be lumped in with the Jam Band sound of the ’90s and 2000s then it would have to be The Marshall Tucker Band. These Carolina country boys really don’t get the credit they deserve when it comes to that adventurous style often found at hippy festival across the United States. They have long been one of my all time favorite bands having created some of my all time favorite songs. I remember seeing these guys live at the Flaming Mug in Fayetteville, NC, flying high on a couple squares. They literally blew my mind with their virtuosity and joy of play. These guys could jam with the best of them. They created an eclectic world of American folklore and southern life, while incorporating elements of Jazz, Swing and Hippy Rock into their heavy Country influenced Southern Rock style. Now they might argue the hippy thing, much like Steve Harris will argue about Punk. I don’t care, I can hear it.
A New Life combines many of those styles while creating a cowboy movie feel, like an old time Western. The hero, after many trials and tribulations, can’t wait to return into the arms of his lover. The pace, rhythm, and signature changes are like the southern landscape he travels and the melody is his horse. The Marshall Tucker Band, in all its Southern Rock and Country & Western glory, is one of the earliest jam bands of the modern age.
Hope you all enjoyed this selection. would love to hear your feedback on all things Southern Rock. please check out my social media and don’t forget to keep on rockin’. Cheers!