The Rock 'n' Roll Archives, Volume One: Southern Rockers
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About this ebook
The Rock ‘n’ Roll Archives is a series collecting vintage artist interviews from the archives of award-winning rock critic and music historian Rev. Keith A. Gordon.
Volume One of The Rock ‘n’ Roll Archives features interviews with ten of the new breed of “Southern Rockers” who emerged during the 1990s to breathe new life into the moribund sub-genre of rock music. Among those included are Warren Haynes, Webb Wilder, Jason Ringenberg and Warner Hodges of Jason & the Scorchers, Brent Best of Slobberbone, and Kevn Kinney of Drivin’ ‘n’ Cryin’, among others.
The “Reverend of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Rev. Keith A. Gordon has been writing about music for 45+ years. A former contributor to the All Music Guide books and website, and the former Blues Expert for About.com, Rev. Gordon has written or edited nine previous music-related books, including The Other Side of Nashville and Scorched Earth: A Jason & the Scorchers Scrapbook.
Rev. Keith A. Gordon
The "Reverend of Rock 'n' Roll," Rev. Keith A. Gordon has almost 50 years in the pop culture trenches. Gordon's work has appeared in over 100 publications worldwide, as well as in several All Music Guide books and on the AMG website, as well as Blurt magazine and the Rock and Roll Globe. Rev. Gordon is the author of nearly two-dozen music-related books including The Other Side of Nashville, a history of the city's rock 'n' roll underground; Blues Deluxe: A Joe Bonamassa Buying Guide; and The Rock 'n' Roll Archives series.
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The Rock 'n' Roll Archives, Volume One - Rev. Keith A. Gordon
THE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL ARCHIVES
Volume One: Southern Rockers
Artist interviews from the archives of Rev. Keith A. Gordon
Smashwords Edition • Copyright 2017 • All Rights Reserved
Smashwords Edition, License Notes:
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
ARTIST INTERVIEWS
• The Cactus Brothers (1995)
• Charlie Daniels (1999)
• Drivin’ ‘N’ Cryin’ (1991)
• The Georgia Satellites (1990)
• Warren Haynes (1993)
• Jason & the Scorchers (1986)
• The Kentucky Headhunters (1990)
• Slobberbone (1997)
• Widespread Panic (1991)
• Webb Wilder (1997)
INTRODUCTION: ROCKIN’ IN DIXIE
‘Southern Rock’ was hot stuff when I was a teenager growing up in the rural suburbs of Nashville during the 1970s. The Allman Brothers Band had released a couple of albums by the time their classic At Fillmore East set rocked the world in 1971. Lynyrd Skynyrd released their classic debut album a couple years later in 1973, as did the Marshall Tucker Band. Charlie Daniels, who had seemingly been around the scene forever – he’d played on albums by Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen in the 1960s – enjoyed his first hit single with Uneasy Rider.
A year later, ol’ Charlie would launch the annual ‘Volunteer Jam’ concert in Nashville, which would enjoy sold-out crowds through the end of the decade.
The new wave
‘80s was a tough time for Southern Rock, though. The 1977 airplane crash that took the lives of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Ronnie Van Zandt and Steve Gaines brought an effective halt to the band’s momentum; Marshall Tucker’s Tommy Caldwell was taken by a car wreck in 1980 and his brother Toy left the band mid-decade; the Allman Brothers suffered through numerous tragedies to break up, re-form, and make mostly mediocre music until Warren Haynes joined the band in 1989. As for Charlie Daniels, his sound was more country than rock by 1980, and even he struggled to get commercial traction by the middle of the decade.
The 1990s brought an entirely new crop of erstwhile Southern Rockers that carried with them a fresh artistic vision that expanded the genre’s sound beyond twangy, amplified roots-rock and blues. Nashville’s thriving rock scene yielded two classic bands in Jason & the Scorchers and Webb Wilder & the Beatnecks, and other various scenes across the South would nurture talents like Brent Best of Slobberbone (Denton, TX), Kevn Kinney and Drivin’ ‘N’ Cryin’ (Atlanta GA), Dan Baird and the Georgia Satellites (Atlanta again), and Widespread Panic (Athens GA).
I was lucky enough to have been able to interview a number of the new breed of ‘Southern Rockers’ during the late ‘80s and throughout the 1990s, first for Nashville’s The Metro and Bone music magazines and later for publications like Play magazine (the in-house rag of Sound Shop record stores) and my own poorly-distributed music zines.
To follow are ten of what I consider to be among the best of the artist interviews I did with the new generation of Southern Rockers. While several of these artists (Warren Haynes, Kevn Kinney, Webb Wilder, Dan Baird) continue to tour and record great new music, the Internet has allowed young music fans to discover the charms of the other artists included in this first volume of The Rock ‘n’ Roll Archive series. Enjoy!
THE CACTUS BROTHERS: NEW AMBASSADORS OF COUNTRY MUSIC (1995)
As told by the story below, the Cactus Brothers were formed out of one of Nashville’s most popular rock bands, Walk the West. The Cactus Brothers became much bigger than its alter ego, touring the world as the Music City’s shaggy musical ambassadors and setting several milestones along the way. A super-heavy touring schedule (200+ nights annually) eventually took its toll and the band broke up, leaving behind two excellent CDs and hundreds of electric live performances. This Cactus Brothers interview was conducted with damn near the whole band at local photographer Libba Gillum’s house in Brentwood, Tennessee and ran in the Tennessean newspaper’s T-Bone entertainment insert, June 2, 1995.
During the past few years, country music has become a big business, the hottest game in the entertainment world. Although the streets of Nashville’s Music Row
may not be paved with gold, there are a few new Mercedes parked alongside the row. Set aside for a moment, however, the Platinum™ albums, the snakeskin boots and the ever-present Stetson hats and one thing remains: the relationship between the artist and the audience. That’s what has made country music successful, and that’s the way that it