Southern rock
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Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music. It developed in the South of the United States from Rock and Roll and Blues, with a tinge of influence from Country and folk, and is focused generally on electric guitar and vocals.
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[edit] 1950s and 1960s – Origins
Rock music's origins lie mostly in the music of Southerners, and many stars from the first wave of 1950s rock and roll such as Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Bo Diddley and Jerry Lee Lewis hailed from the Deep South. But the British Invasion, and the rise of folk rock and psychedelic rock in the middle 1960s, shifted the focus of new rock music away from the rural south and to large cities like Liverpool, London, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
In the late 1960s, traditionalists such as Creedence Clearwater Revival (from Northern California), and The Band (Canadian, though drummer Levon Helm is a native Arkansan) revived interest in the roots of rock music. See Muscle Shoals Music.
[edit] 1970s – Peak of Popularity
Eventually the spotlight once again turned to bands from the American South. The Allman Brothers Band out of Macon, Georgia made their national debut in 1969 and soon gained a loyal following. Their blues-rock sound on one hand incorporated long jams informed by jazz and classical music, and on the other hand incorporated softer elements of country and folk with a Southern feel. The death of guitarist and leader Duane Allman in 1971 did not prevent them from gaining widespread popular appeal for the next several years, until internal tensions broke them apart after 1976. Because a certain type of blues music, and essentially, rock and roll, was invented in the South, Gregg Allman has commented that "Southern rock" is a bit redundant; it's like saying "rock rock."[1]
The Allmans were signed to Capricorn Records, a small Macon outfit headed by Phil Walden (former manager of Otis Redding). A number of somewhat similar acts also recorded on Capricorn, including the Marshall Tucker Band from South Carolina, Wet Willie from Alabama, Grinderswitch from Georgia (and comprised of Allmans roadies), and the Elvin Bishop Band from Oklahoma.
Not on Capricorn, but loosely associated with this first wave of Southern rock, were Barefoot Jerry from Tennessee and the Charlie Daniels Band from North Carolina. Indeed it was Charlie Daniels, a big-bearded fiddler with a knack for novelty songs, who gave Southern rock its self-identifying anthem with his 1975 hit, "The South's Gonna Do It", whose lyrics mentioned all of the above bands and then asserted: "Be proud you're a rebel / Cause the South's gonna do it again." A year earlier, Daniels had started the Volunteer Jam, an annual concert held in Tennessee that would bring together many Southern rock artists in a loose setting.
In the early 1970s, a different wave of hard rock Southern groups emerged that emphasized stripped down boogie rhythms, fast guitar leads derived from heavy metal, and lyrical themes borrowed from the concurrent outlaw country movement. Also mentioned in "The South's Gonna Do It", Lynyrd Skynyrd out of Jacksonville, Florida dominated this genre until the deaths of lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and other members of the group in a 1977 airplane crash. After this tragic plane crash members Allen Collins and Gary Rossington started another band called Rossington-Collins band. Groups such as .38 Special, The Outlaws, Molly Hatchet, Blackfoot, Point Blank and Black Oak Arkansas also thrived in this genre for a time.
The Allmans' Southern feel came more from the temperament of its music ("Hot 'Lanta", "Little Martha", interpolations of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken") than any explicit cultural identification. Phil Walden, the Allmans, and other Capricorn artists had also played a part in Jimmy Carter's successful, unity-based run for the presidency; Carter himself was an avowed Allmans fan[citation needed]. Even within the Skynyrd branch of Southern rock, the appearance of Molly Hatchet on the dance-oriented show Solid Gold showed that the redneck rock/metal combination had some universal appeal.
Not all Southern rock artists fit into the above molds. The Atlanta Rhythm Section and the Amazing Rhythm Aces were more focused on tight vocal harmonies, Louisiana's Le Roux ranged from Cajun-flavored southern boogie early on to a more arena rock sound later on, while the Dixie Dregs and Allmans offshoot Sea Level explored jazz fusion.
[edit] 1980s & 1990s – Continuing Influence
Southern rock gained popularity far beyond the American south, and influenced groups as far flung as Australia's AC/DC, whose original vocalist, Bon Scott was known to wear rebel flag belt buckles at concerts.
However, by the beginning of the 1980s, with the Allmans and Skynyrd both broken, with Capricorn Records in bankruptcy, and with Jimmy Carter out of office, much of Southern rock had become thoroughly enmeshed into corporate arena rock. A Southern rock group which began to also gain popularity during this time was Doc Holliday. With the rise of MTV, New Wave, and hair metal, most surviving Southern rock groups were relegated to secondary or regional venues[citation needed]. Bands such as Better Than Ezra, Drivin N Cryin, Cowboy Mouth, Dash Rip Rock and Third Day emerged as popular Southern bands across the Southeastern United States during the 80's and 90's.
One notable exception was Texas's ZZ Top, who had started in 1970 and were the one other band mentioned in "The South's Gonna Do It." In the 1980s they added slick synthesizer production to their boogie blues sound, and skillfully used music videos to achieve great popularity. There were occasional hits by groups such as the Georgia Satellites as well.
During the 1990s the Allman Brothers reunified and became a strong touring and recording presence again, and the jam band scene revived interest in extended improvised music (although the scene also owed much to the Grateful Dead, a group that relied heavily on southern music traditions). Incarnations of Lynyrd Skynyrd also made themselves heard. Hard rock groups with southern rock touches such as Jackyl renewed some interest in Southern rock. Classic rock radio stations played some of the more familiar 1970s works, and Daniels's Volunteer Jam concerts were still going.
Even the grunge music scene was influenced in some measure by Southern rock. Songs such as Pearl Jam's "Dissident" and Stone Temple Pilots' "Big Empty" and "Interstate Love Song" feature guitar licks and arrangements that harken back to the classic Southern sound.
But some rock groups from the South, such as Georgia's R.E.M., B-52's, Widespread Panic, and Black Crowes, Florida's Sister Hazel, and Mississippi's Blind Melon, incorporated Southern musical and lyrical themes without explicitly allying with any Southern rock movement.
[edit] 2000 to Present – The Resurgence
In the early 2000s, Detroit rapcore star Kid Rock who dabbled in mixing southern rock with rap time to time ("Cowboy" And "Prodigal Son") included several southern rock tracks on his 2001 Cocky album and then a full out blitz of it on his 2003 self-titled album. Additionally, Kid Rock has listed southern rock (particularly Lynyrd Skynyrd) as being a major influence on his music[citation needed]. He joined them on a remake of Gimmie Back My Bullets in 2003.
In 2005 Southern rock received new exposure from an unlikely source: singer Bo Bice took an explicitly Southern rock sensibility and appearance to a runner-up finish on the massively watched but normally pop-oriented American Idol television program. Fueled by a key early performance of the Allmans' "Whipping Post" and later performing Skynyrd's "Free Bird" and, with Skynyrd on stage with him, "Sweet Home Alabama," Bice demonstrated that Southern rock still had a place in the American music pantheon.
More recently, hardcore and grindcore acts like He Is Legend, Fight Paris, Norma Jean, Every Time I Die, Killwhitneydead, Job For A Cowboy, The Chariot and Maylene and the Sons of Disaster have blended minor Southern Rock influences with heavy metal music.
Post-grunge bands such as, Shinedown, Saliva, Nickelback, Default, and Theory of a Deadman, have included a Southern Rock feel to their songs and have gone as far as to cover southern rock classics like "Simple Man" and "Tuesdays Gone". Metallica has also covered "Tuesday Gone" on their Garage Inc album.
Additionally, Indie Rock groups such as Kings of Leon, My Morning Jacket, Soulhat and The Steepwater Band combine Southern rock with rawer genres, such as garage rock, alt-country, and blues-rock.
A number of crossover acts from country music also are reviving the genre. Among these are Drive-By Truckers, Ryan Adams, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Shooter Jennings, The Great Divide, and Reckless Kelly. These bands often come from Oklahoma's Red Dirt music scene or the Texas music scene as opposed to mainstream country meccas like Nashville[citation needed]. Probably one of the more unlikely blends is that of punk and Southern Rock, most notably Dash Rip Rock, Slobberbone and Jason and the Scorchers (the latter two are now disbanded). Drive-by Truckers could also be considered part of this Cowpunk movement.
Much of the old style Southern rock (as well as other classic rock) has made its transition into the country music genre, establishing itself along the lines of outlaw country in recent years. Bands such as Skynyrd and Daniels frequently play country music venues, and the influence of Southern rock can be heard in many of today's country artists, particularly male vocalists.
Several of the original early 1970s hard rock southern rock groups are still performing in 2006. This list includes Gregg Allman, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Molly Hatchet, Blackfoot, Marshall Tucker, the french band The Electric Church and The Outlaws. New groups such as Gator Country, Gov't Mule, and Dickey Betts & Great Southern are continuing the Southern rock art form.
[edit] Southern metal
Beginning in the 1980s and continuing into the 1990s and the new millennium, bands formed that combined heavy metal with southern rock and blues, often including southern references and imagery. It began with groove metal, an offspring of thrash whose creation is usually attributed to Exhorder, though, Beginning with 1990's Cowboys from Hell, the Texas outfit Pantera popularized the style, though the name was not often used. Southern Sludgecore, also starting in Louisiana, began a few years later. Some important bands include Eyehategod (from Louisiana), Corrosion of Conformity (from North Carolina), Crowbar (from Louisiana), Down (from Louisiana). Superjoint Ritual, though not fitting any of these specific genres, contains members of Pantera, Down, and COC, with Hank Williams III on bass.
Zakk Wylde and his Black Label Society, though hailing from New Jersey, have strong Southern rock influences and vibes, perhaps advanced by Wylde's close friendship with the late Dimebag Darrell of Pantera. Another band with southern rock influences hail from Syracuse New York and they are called Brand New Sin.
Bands like Last Weeks Casual Friday, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, Death and Texas, Alabama Thunderpussy (the old singer of the aforementioned Exhorder is current vocalist for ATP), The Showdown, Cancer Bats and Nebraska have a Southern influence that helps bring Southern metal and hardcore together.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ The History of Rock 'n' Roll: The 70s: Have a Nice Decade
- The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll. Random House, 1980. "Southern Rock" entry by Joe Nick Patoski. ISBN 0-394-73938-8.
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