Way back in 1975 the Charlie Daniels Band had a hit called “The South’s Gonna Do It Again.” It became the anthem for a style of hard-biting guitar-driven music fed by blues and country roots that was flooding the FM airwaves and filling arenas at the time: Southern rock.
The genre was ultimately swept aside by disco, the California sound (with poles defined by the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac) and new wave pop. But not before bands like the Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Marshall Tucker Band, the Outlaws, Molly Hatchet, Black Oak Arkansas, Wet Willie, and Little Feat―most of whom came from Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina―wrote their collective chapter of rock and roll history.
Thirty-two years later, the prediction of Charlie Daniels―who’s still performing at age 71―is coming true. There’s a renewed interest in roots music that is bubbling into the mainstream after a decade or so of percolation in the underground, and one of its most important tributaries is Southern rock.
Among the most recent evidence are new albums by Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant collaborating with bluegrass diva Alison Krauss and soul survivor Bettye LaVette’s team-up with Georgia’s trailer-trash rockers the Drive-By Truckers. Plant and Kraus’ Raising Sand debuted at No. 2 on Billboard’s top albums chart, and LaVette’s The Scene of the Crime surfaced at No. 1 on the blues chart and has been nominated for a best contemporary blues Grammy.
However, most of the new generation of Southern rockers operate a little more, well, south of popular radar. Many of these young outfits were inspired by the music’s founders―mostly through classic recordings like the Allmans’ At Fillmore East and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Second Helping, although versions of some of the original bands, including the Allmans, Skynyrd, and Grinderswitch, do indeed solider on.
Several of the most interesting and most deeply rooted up-and-comers were inspired by the juke joint blues revival of the mid-’90s. That’s when Mississippi’s Fat Possum label released the nastiest, punkiest authentic backwoods blues in decades. Through shrewd marketing, hip-hop remixes, and the support of rockers like Iggy Pop and Jon Spencer, old Mississippi dogs like R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough engaged a new audience of young pups. Those artists, both now deceased, resonated with many of today’s emerging musicians the same way Sonny Boy Williamson II and T-Bone Walker did for the Allmans.
Here’s a rundown of some of the brightest bands spearheading today’s new Southern rock movement.
North Mississippi Allstars
Guitarist Luther and drummer Cody Dickinson were nearly fated to play their genre-defying blend of Mississippi hill country blues and steamrolling Allman Brothers crunch. Their father is roots production legend Jim Dickinson, who specifically relocated his family to the Magnolia State for the good of his sons’ musical education.
When they formed the North Mississippi Allstars in 1996 with bassist Chris Chew and in 2000 released their debut Shake Hands with Shorty, they were essentially playing the songbook of neighboring bluesmen R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, and Othar Turner, but with their own energetic salt and pepper. They’ve added a wealth of other seasonings over the course of five more albums including the Allmans-crazy Polaris and their new Hernando, produced by their father, which comes out January 22. Today they’re darlings of the jamband scene, which has an affinity for the extended instrumental forays that have always been a Southern rock staple.
The Black Keys
Although they hail from Akron, Ohio, this guitar-and-drums duo hammer out a loud, proud strain of music that also has its roots in the Fat Possum sound exemplified by Burnside and Junior Kimbrough―an unbridled, hypnotic stomp that’s a close relative to psychedelic rock. The Black Keys take it even closer and rub elbows with the proto-metal sound of outfits like Blue Cheer and the MC5, too.
They’ve released seven full-length albums and in 2006 cut the tribute Chulahoma: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough. Like their breakthrough second CD, 2003’s Thickfreakness, it was on the Fat Possum label, which they’re since departed for the majors.
Although the Black Keys play concerts that crackle with punk-rock abandon, their ability to excite can be blunted by a failure to control their dynamics. It’s one lesson they’ve failed to learn from their blues idols and Southern rock predecessors, who understood volume control as a means of expression. Nonetheless, the Black Keys have a sizeable following and last year headlined the first annual Deep Blues Festival in Minnesota and were featured performers at jam-heavy Bonnaroo.
Back Door Slam
This trio of teenagers from the Isle of Man prove that geography and Southern rock legitimacy aren’t necessarily related. Back Door Slam’s blend of guitar pyrotechnics and blues-anchored ballads place them firmly in the below the Mason-Dixon mold. Their 2007 debut album Roll Away scored on the Americana radio charts and got the band before the cameras of Austin City Limits with a sound that borrows heavily from the early Allman Brothers and Eric Clapton’s Derek and the Dominos―Clapton’s experiment in forming a South-rooted American rock band that yielded the classics “Layla” and “Bell Bottom Blues.” For evidence of Back Door Slam’s bright future, check out their performance clips on YouTube.
The Black Diamond Heavies
Coalescing around an axis of Louisville, Chattanooga, and Nashville, the Black Diamond Heavies started as a trio walking the forked road of Delta blues and garage rock. By the time of their 2007 debut Every Damn Time (a favorite catch phrase from their Mississippi juke joint idol T-Model Ford), guitarist-harmonica man Mark Holder had departed, leaving the band as―believe it or not―an organ and drums duo.
What’s surprising is how distinctly Southern they still sound thanks to Van Campbell’s behind-the-beat thumping on a big loose-tuned drum kit and John Wesley Myers’ unhurried, guitar-like keyboard phrasing. Not to mention the grits ’n’ grit in their singing on tunes like “Stitched in Sin.”
Moreland and Arbuckle
This trio from Kansas specialize in Delta and hill country blues with an edged sharpened by rock and roll energy. Featuring Dustin Arbuckle’s harmonica and vocals, Aaron Moreland’s guitar, and Brad Horner’s drums, they are torchbearers of the modern Mississippi juke joint sound captured on Fat Possum recordings by R.L. Burnside, T-Model Ford, and Paul “Wine” Jones. Although they are far from household names, their ranking as finalists at the 2005 International Blues Competition in Memphis and the albums Cane Valley Blues and Floyd’s Market have generated a buzz and propelled them to tours in the U.S. and Europe.