1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Southern Rock Mount Rushmore

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Driftwood, Aug 11, 2019.

  1. Jake from State Farm

    Jake from State Farm Well-Known Member

    Can't get into New Orleans without mentioning the Neville Brothers
    Saw them at House of Blues during Jazz Fest in the 90s
    One of my top five shows
     
  2. TigerVols

    TigerVols Well-Known Member

    I grew up in Nashville in the 70s with a hippy older brother who listened to nothing but. If he listened to it, it was Southern Rock.

    Had he been alive today to join in on this convo (and lemme tell you, he'd have you all rolling in laughter), he'd tell you that his 8-track collection contained, in order

    ZZ Top
    Marshall Tucker
    Allmans
    Johnny Winter/
    Wet Willie
    Dixie Dregs
    Charlie Daniels, during his early Volunteer Jam era
    Dylan's Nashville Skyline
    The Stones
    Barefoot Jerry
    CCR
    Skynyrd
     
    OscarMadison likes this.
  3. Neutral Corner

    Neutral Corner Well-Known Member

    I love ZZ Top. I guess that I put a lot of people into a somewhat separate "Texas music" slot, with a subdivision for Texas singer-songwriters. One of the best shows I ever saw was ZZ in Macon, Ga. on the Tres Hombres tour. Hydra, a local band around Atlanta opened. Yawn. The roadies reset the stage and a bunch of black dudes came out and started to lay down a ferocious groove. That ran for a few minutes and a couple of songs, then a big fat black guy in a dark suit came out and plugged in a black Gibson and the blues were in the house. I kept hearing people around me say "B.B. King", but I knew that it wasn't him. Eventually they were introduced as Freddy King and the Nightcrawlers. They were nowhere on the bill, but made their presence known quickly (and with authority!). Fine set.

    ZZ then came out and played a long set, with a three or four song encore. There were a bunch of us who were hardcore and hung on, clapping and stomping and raising hell, and they came out again and played till about 1:30 a.m. Finally the house lights came up and we got run out. Just a fabulous show. They played all the early stuff, the whole damn Tres Hombres album, all kinda rock and blues covers, you name it. "Gotta mellow down eeeaaassy, baby!".

    The coda for this was that I was with a couple of guys that I hung with a bit. One was a full on biker, another was mixed race, half black, wearing rhinestone earrings (and this was in '73, '74, and you didn't see many guys in them). I was in hippy-rocker concert gear with fairly long hair. We stopped off the interstate to hit the Waffle House for food and coffee on the way home, about halfway between Macon and Atlanta. Nobody in there but rednecks who had closed down the bar and truckers. All eyes on us. We ate and moved on, because the vibe was pretty bad, we were holding and wanted no part of small town law.

    Helluva night.
     
  4. Neutral Corner

    Neutral Corner Well-Known Member

    There are a whole lot of acts that are rooted hard in the blues and rock 'n roll, and many of them really defy category. In a general sense I don't like putting musical acts in boxes. I guess that I'm kinda judgmental about "Southern Rock" because I grew up with it all around me. There are bands that play that style that geographically don't fit but make fine music. George Thorogood, the Nighthawks, like that. It's all good, and really not worth arguing over. Too much overlap, too many songs/albums that fit but are not typical of the style or the group.

    Then you get groups like the Dead, who played all kinds of music. Started as psychedelic/acid rock, but played old time rock, blues, folk, country, jazz. Garcia started out as a folkie, then went bluegrass, and once the Dead got going did all sorts of stuff. Throw in the loosely associated groups, side projects and fellow travelers like the New Riders of the Purple Sage. It's a really wide swath of music and influences.

    Or look at a guy like Lyle Lovett. Texas country to the bone, with a large side of blues, R&B, Texas Swing/Big Band, but basically a Texas singer-songwriter. What the hell box do you put him in? Listen to "Church" and tell me he's a country artist. A lot of the LL and the Large Band stuff is big band R&B and blues, and sounds black, mostly because many of the players and certainly the vocalists are black.

    Good music is good music. Screw the labels.
     
    OscarMadison, Huggy and Inky_Wretch like this.
  5. swingline

    swingline Well-Known Member

    Lyle Lovett in the AAA category of music. There was a station around here that had that format, then it was sold to Clear Channel and went all to hell.
     
  6. Neutral Corner

    Neutral Corner Well-Known Member

    Or try figuring out what box to put Ry Cooder into. Just try. He started out doing very traditional folk and blues, Woodie Guthrie covers, slide and banjo and mandolin. Played sessions with everyone and his brother. Taught Keith Richards the five string guitar/G tuning that is all over Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile, and played on the first two. He's an ace slide player, but he's done albums of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar, done Jazz, done various sorts of World Music. Played with Ali Farka Toure. He did an album of conjunto music with Flaco Jimenez. Did a zydeco album. He's probably best known generally to those who don't follow him for the Buena Vista Social Club album, film, and tours, where he searched out old guys in Cuba who played afro-cuban big band jazz in the 50's and 60's. He cut an album with the Chieftains. There's basically nothing with strings that the guy can't play. He's done a number of soundtracks in Hollywood, probably the "Long Riders" and "Paris, Texas" probably most notably. He played all the slide guitar on "Crossroads".

    It's a pity that he really does not enjoy playing live gigs. I was lucky enough to see him once, and it was an amazing show. He opened when Randy Newman premiered his Good Old Boys album at Symphony Hall in Atlanta. It was just Ry, two guitars, a mandolin and a banjo.

    Solo on electric mandoguitar at 3:20 or so is classic Ry.



    '77 or so. Flaco Jimenez on accordion. The vocals will give you chills. Lovely rendition, great slide work.

     
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2019
    OscarMadison likes this.
  7. Neutral Corner

    Neutral Corner Well-Known Member

    I don't care what you call him, he's great. His "Live in Texas" is a great starter if you don't know his work.



     
    OscarMadison likes this.
  8. swingline

    swingline Well-Known Member

    Oh, I love Lyle, too. An artist who should be known much more widely than he is. Great voice, great phrasing, great writer.
     
    OscarMadison likes this.
  9. Jake from State Farm

    Jake from State Farm Well-Known Member

    That’s why I like the Mavericks and Steve Earle
    You can’t categorize them
    They’re just good
     
    OscarMadison and Neutral Corner like this.
  10. Neutral Corner

    Neutral Corner Well-Known Member

    The Mavericks are great. Love Raul Malo.

    Texas Tornados too. Doug Sahm, Freddie Fender, Flaco Jimenez (again), Augie Meyers. Damn good stuff there as well.
     
  11. Neutral Corner

    Neutral Corner Well-Known Member

    I've got a young Steve Earle that you all but certainly have never seen. There's an old documentary on the early days of Outlaw Country called "Heartworn Highways", which in great part centered on Guy Clark and his circle of friends in Nashville. This clip is from a guitar pull on Christmas Eve, 1975. Guy and Susanna, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle and more at Clark's house. So damn young, look at Guy, lord.

    The funny part was that Guy really wanted his friend Townes Van Zandt to be in the movie, but he had moved back to Austin. Clark pointed the filmmaker at Townes, and he wound up taking over the last third of the doc, pretty much stealing the show. It's a lovely time capsule if you want to run it down. Several clips up on Youtube.

     
    OscarMadison likes this.
  12. Jake from State Farm

    Jake from State Farm Well-Known Member

    Here's Steve Earle on some 80s show hosted by Joy Behar
    It's apparent she has no idea who the fuck he is

     
    OscarMadison likes this.
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page