SOUTHERN ROCKERS: THE ROOTS AND LEGACY OF SOUTHERN ROCK

Southern Rock groups have captured the imaginations of millions of diehard rock and roll fans with their charismatic, hard-driving musical rebellion. The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Marshall Tucker Band, The Charlie Daniels Band, Wet Willie, The Outlaws, .38 Special, Grinderswitch, Blackfoot...all have knocked the music world off its feet with soulful, primal rhythm anthems to good times, hard times, wild living, romance, heartbreak, stoic independence, and gentle Southern landscapes.

Southern Rock is alive, well, and, most definitely, here to stay. Southern Rockers: The Roots and Legacy of Southern Rock takes you inside the histories of the artists who bring us this eclectic and captivating music.

Excerpt:

On Southern Rock:

"It was The Allman Brothers Band, which is kind of a blues band. Lynyrd Skynyrd, which is a pure rock band. Marshall Tucker Band, which was kind of a country sort of band. And us, which were lost out in the ozone somewhere. I think basically where the cohesiveness came was that most of the people that were involved in it all came from the same type background. About the same type financial background, the same type of educational background and social background. We had a close camaraderie with each other." - Charlie Daniels

"I don't know who came up with that [term]. Some journalist somewhere, I think. Somebody in the record business or somebody in the retail business. Somebody that worked at Tower Recors or something just gave us a slot. But it wasn't any of us." - Gregg Allman, The Allman Brothers Band

"Obviously the influences were the blues. But for a new generation and a different twist on the music, they kind of redefined these stories. They were stories from the South, and there was intrigue. Whether you lived in New England or whether you lived on the West Coast, or wherever, you heard these stories about swamps and snakes and gators and drinking. It was almost like reading a Zane Gray novel. Wow, what a cool place or what a strange place this is. You don't want to go down there. These stories have been told a million times, but they all of a sudden came into the mainstream of rock music and people heard 'em on the radio." Jeff Carlisi, .38 Special

"It's like saying that because you're from the South you sound a certain way, which in some cases is true. But it's like saying that everyone from Seattle sounds the same, and that's definately not true because Hendrix is from Seattle and so is Kurt Cobain." - Warren Hayes, The Allman Brothers Band/Gov't Mule

"I feel that some people have more of a stereotypical image of it. Of the Confederate flag waving, cowboy hat wearing, more redneck kind of bands, of having that image. But overall, I'm proud of it, today, that term. And I'm proud to be associated with it. The emphasis is on good songs. If you look at what it is to grow up in the South, the family values, the spititual side...the Bible Belt is part of our heritage, interracial interaction, the black culture, the love of the land...all those things make it what it was and what it still is." - Jimmy Hall, Wet Willie

"I care for these people, and I respect them. They are strange kids and yet they look on me with love. There's a closeness I feel to these young people." - Former President Jimmy Carter

"I don't care if somebody wants to say I'm Southern Rock. I'm proud of that. But to me there's only two kinds of music. And that's good and bad, honest and fabricated." - Dru Lombar, Grinderswitch

Reader Review:

The author covered just about every area in Southern Rock, both with detail and to the point. Not a paragraph of dull reading at all. I literally could not put it down and came away with a good background of Southern Rocks greatest. It also came across as a tribute to the many southern musicians who have tragically left us too soon.