[gnatback]

i'd like to qualify my earlier statement by saying skynyrd and the allmans really threw it all away and SUCKED after awhile, as most of you will probably agree. greg allman became a cartooon, with the solo album with Cher ????

As far as more recent southern rockers i'll have to mention Jason & the Nashville Scorchers (later just jason & the scorchers). More southern punk than southern rock, they disappeared pretty quick, but they were great in the early to mid 80s, got an album-of-the-year award or something like that from Rolling Stone ZIne before disappearing, they were especially good live.

as for zz top, i loved them up to tres hombres. i saw them open for skynyrd at a redneck 3-for-one special outdoor concert in nashville more than 30 years ago ... i think marshall tucker was also on the bill but i don't remember for sure... it was at the speedway, on a blistering hot july 4th weekend ... one of the worst concerts I've ever been to with the rowdiest, most obnoxious and drunken fans ever, with flying beer bottles and the stench of BO and vomit completely overpowering the music. Yucch. Thankfully moved to california shortly after that.

I am also not that impressed with drive by truckers, but have only heard one of their albums.

Rock on.

 

[tru blu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gnatback /img/forum/go_quote.gif Jason & the Nashville Scorchers (later just jason & the scorchers).

Good call…nice band. Saw them twice in NYC way back when…used to run with a woman from Tennessee who was tight with Warner Hodges.

Also, let me put in a word for the Bottle Rockets.

 

[DrBenway]

Quote:

Originally Posted by catachresis /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm starting to get ambivalent. You won't like me when I'm ambivalent. First, I can't think seriously at all about Dixie-fried rock without thinking about ZZ Top.

This thread is really pointing up the futility of applying labels. I agree that ZZ Top is/was a great band. Fandango is one of my favorite albums, and you could very justifiably call them a southern-rock band. You could also call them a blues-rock band. Or you could call them a power trio. And what do you call them from Eliminator on, when it became obvious that they were aware of modern dance beats and electronics?

Quote:

Originally Posted by catachresis /img/forum/go_quote.gif Second, the question vexes the whole issue of where Southern Rock ends and C&W begins.

More proof that labels are slippery at best. As for Carl Perkins, you could also ask about the distinction between hard country and rockabilly. He certainly walked that line (sorry) throughout his career.

Quote:

Originally Posted by catachresis /img/forum/go_quote.gif ...but you know that the sound of X didn't grow out the dirt of Bakersfield.

Funny you should mention X. I just got the new John Doe solo album, Country Club, and it is straight-up traditional country. Not country-rock. Not cowpunk. Country, without a hyphen. And it's freakin' great, by the way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by catachresis /img/forum/go_quote.gif Fourth, what the hell do you do with REM, which I do solemnly swear, was a great rock band for the first four-or-so albums.

That's why critics had to come up with nebulous terms like "college rock" or "alternative."

Quote:

Originally Posted by catachresis /img/forum/go_quote.gif Fifth--last--it just got me thinking about the glorious rise and ignominious fall of all those great Southern music acts that were something special in their day. Just off hand, I remembered: The DBs The B-52s The Swimming Pool Qs Webb Wilder and His Beatnecks The Georgia Satellites Southern Culture on the Skids The Vomit Spots Guadacanal Diary The Reivers BR549 All additions to this Memento Mori list are appreciated.

How about Love Tractor? Pylon?

Or Oh, OK. I never actually heard Oh, OK, but I knew Linda Stipe was a member, and they were a bass/drums duo. Sort of the White Stripes minus a couple of strings.

 

[DrBenway]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsaliga /img/forum/go_quote.gif Where's The Marshall Tucker Band? Where We All Belong is a great album.--Jerome

When I framed the poll, I at first thought of just listing ten bands. But I limited it to just Allmans/Skynyrd/Other for two reasons.

1) I wanted to see how many Allmans and Skynyrd partisans there are around here.

2) I wanted to see how many different suggestions there would be for "other." Lots, as it turns out.

Marshall Tucker is one of the groups I would have listed if I had simply laid out ten names for people to vote on. They were certainly one of the definitional southern rock bands, but to me they stood apart for several reasons. First, they were more directly country than either the Allmans or Skynyrd, while still being demonstrably a rock band. Second, they prominently featured a horn player (Jerry Eubanks was his name?) which gave them something of a jazz/R&B flavor. And Toy Caldwell was a monster guitar player, without sounding like Allman, Betts, or any of the three guys from Skynyrd. Good Call!

 

[Beyerfan70]

No Molly hatchet with the incredible Danny joe brown? tut tut tut.
That's my pick.
Also how bout Rossington collins band....they were awesome too!
And yeah Dale krantz was absolutely hot!

 

[Qonmus]

.

 

[DrBenway]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gnatback /img/forum/go_quote.gif ...greg allman became a cartooon, with the solo album with Cher ????

Almost forgot about that. I think the title was something like Allman and Woman and they were posed in a clumsy-looking embrace on the cover. Ain't love grand?

Even creepier was when thing Greg Allman fired Dickey Betts for his alleged substance abuse problems. Greg Allman firing someone for substance abuse? Isn't that a bit like Donald Trump firing someone for having bad hair?

I saw Betts about a month later at BB King's. He sounded great, he looked fit, and his band was well-rehearsed and tight as a drum.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gnatback /img/forum/go_quote.gif ...As far as more recent southern rockers i'll have to mention Jason & the Nashville Scorchers (later just jason & the scorchers). More southern punk than southern rock, they disappeared pretty quick, but they were great in the early to mid 80s...

I reviewed their debut (an EP, if I remember correctly) for my college newspaper. I loved it. I saw Jason Ringenberg a couple of years ago at the Rodeo Bar here in NYC. He played solo acoustic, and he put on a really great show. It was a little sad to see him playing such a tiny place, though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beyerfan70 /img/forum/go_quote.gif No Molly hatchet with the incredible Danny joe brown? tut tut tut. That's my pick.

Wow, now that's a name I haven't thought of since...a long time ago. I was never really into them, but I enjoyed what I heard on the radio.

This thread has brought back so many groups I haven't thought of lately, which is cool. I've got ancient vinyl on some of them, and I'm going to definitely going to have to sift throught the shelves (collection not currently alphabetized, DOH!)

I'm pretty surprised at the results of the poll so far. In particular, I'm surprised that Skynyrd has gotten just a single lonely vote. I'm also kind of surprised that "Other" is a close second to the Allmans. I really thought it was going to be all about Allmans vs Skynyrd. Interesting.

 

[Tiemen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif Another vote for the Drive-By Truckers.

Yup, great southern rockers....

 

[grawk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrBenway /img/forum/go_quote.gif Even creepier was when thing Greg Allman fired Dickey Betts for his alleged substance abuse problems. Greg Allman firing someone for substance abuse? Isn't that a bit like Donald Trump firing someone for having bad hair? I saw Betts about a month later at BB King's. He sounded great, he looked fit, and his band was well-rehearsed and tight as a drum.

There's more to the story than was made public

If Dickey hadn't been fired, the band wouldn't have gone on.

 

[wuwhere]

The old Allman Brothers Band is my all time southern rock band fav.

However, The Outlaws with Green Grass & High Tides and Ghost Riders in the Sky is worth a mention.

 

[roadcykler]

Blackfoot.

 

[scott_d_m]

Creedence Clearwater Revival. I know they're from the Bay area but certainly can be considered southern rock.

 

[priest]

Skynyrd obviously.

And tru blu read my mind for an honorable mention on the Bottle Rockets. I hesitate on them because I don't personally consider them Southern rock in the sense I take the OP to mean. Too post-modern. Plus, they're really a one album band to me, although that one album is the equal of or better than anything done by Skynyrd or the Allmans, I believe. So you can see my dilemma.

 

[saintalfonzo]

Allman Brothers by a long shot for me, although I do enjoy Skynyrd from time to time. This kind of reminds me of the Zeppelin vs The Who poll, where I felt the same about Zeppelin being better without a doubt.

 

[DrBenway]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grawk /img/forum/go_quote.gif There's more to the story than was made public If Dickey hadn't been fired, the band wouldn't have gone on.

Oh, I'm not claiming to know the details. I know someone who worked for a while at a pretty well-known venue, and he said Betts was not the laid-back character he seems. I'm sure that there is more to the situation than I'm aware of. It just seemed pretty ironic to me, especially given Allman's behaviour around the time of the big drug trial and subsequent breakup in the early 80's.

I'll also confess to being a big fan of Dickey Betts's music. Even during the Duane era, he played some of the most amazing solos; I think some people assume that all of the lead on Live At The Fillmore is Duane. He also brought some of the best material to the band ("Blue Sky," "Southbound.")

So, in other words, I'm biased.

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadcykler /img/forum/go_quote.gif Blackfoot.

Another great band I haven't heard of in years. If I remember correctly, they brought elements of Native American culture to their music. Wow, that was a long time ago...I remember seeing them on TV, maybe on Don Kirchner's Rock Concert or ABC's In Concert series. In the 70s, I really enjoyed the late-night concert shows, like the ones I just mentioned and Midnight Special, which was hosted for a time by the legendary Wolfman Jack. That was long before MTV, of course. Bands just came out on stage and actually played live.

Quote:

Originally Posted by scott_d_m /img/forum/go_quote.gif Creedence Clearwater Revival. I know they're from the Bay area but certainly can be considered southern rock.

As with some of the other bands mentioned in this thread, I think it gets down to splitting hairs. Their sound was certainly based on rockabilly, blues, and 50s rock n roll, with a country streak running through it. These are all sourthern influences, of course...but I don't know if I would group them with the Allmans. I think of them more as a mainstream rock band, whatever that means.