Southern Rock Mount Rushmore

Allman Brothers
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Marshall Tucker
Atlanta Rhythm Section

I saw the first three plus Grinderswitch at the Georgia Jam in Atlanta in June of '74. That was probably the best Skynyrd show I ever saw. There was a looooong rain delay (stadium show) before the Allmans went on, and they were *wasted*. They tried to put out that someone had dosed the food and beverage backstage, but I think they just were kept waiting and had entirely too long to get a massive buzz on. I vividly remember two roadies holding Gregg by the elbows as they carried him out and plopped him on the organ bench.

 

MTB's live album is spectacular, especially 24 Hours at a Time.

I'd go with NC's top 4. Love the ARS.

 

24 Hours at a Time is awesome.

I think the most disappointed at a concert as I've ever been was MTB. They've got a handful of blockbuster songs, the rest was crap. After I heard the biggies, we left. My buddy who went with me had seen them previously. He told me to be prepared to be disappointed. When we walked out, he said, "I told you so."

 

ZZ Top and Tom Petty are not Southern Rock bands. They are rock bands from the south. I love both. They just aren't Southern Rock.

 

I agree with this
That's why you can't eliminate Little Feat
Although calling CCR southern rock would be stretching it

 

CCR is from northern California.

 

"I've been from Tucson to Tucumcari,
Tehachapi to Tonapah..."

Little Feat was a blues/boogie band that started when Lowell George and Roy Estrada left Zappa's Mothers of Invention and joined with Bill Payne and Richie Hayward from George's previous band, The Factory. ("Don't Bogart that Joint" from the Easy Rider soundtrack.) They were a California band.

They played a little bit of all sorts of music, from New Orleans funk and jazz to folk, country, rock and blues. I loved them to death and was a major fan who saw them half a dozen times live while Lowell was alive, but while I did and do love their music, they simply were not a Southern Rock band in the sense that this thread is about.

I think that it would be entirely fair to say that they played some southern rock, but not that they were a Southern Rock band.

 

Personally, for southern rockers, I’d go ...

Allmans
Isbell
DMB
Buffett

YMMV.

 

DMB is way south. From South Africa.

 

Isbell and Drive By Truckers certainly qualify. I was looking at it from the angle of the classic rock era, because I grew up right in the middle of all of that.

 

DM is. But DMB was born in Charlottesville.

 

I get that. I grew up in the middle of it too. But I don’t listen to Ozark Mountain Daredevils and Tom Petty and the rest nearly as much as those four.