Essential Super Hits/ Charlie Daniels Band - southern rock

By Narendra Kusnur 

Album: Essential Super Hits

Artiste: The Charlie Daniels Band

Genre: Southern rock/ Americana

Label: Blue Hat

Rating: *****

The term ‘Americana’ has been used regularly over the past decade, with even the Grammy awards having a category. Those who've heard the 1970s music of Charlie Daniels will probably agree that he was a pioneer in that genre, though the phrase didn’t exist then.

Leading the Charlie Daniels Band, 83-year-old Daniels has left a huge void with his death on Monday after repeated illness over the past few years. A contemporary of the Allman Brothers Band, the Marshall Tucker Band, ZZ Top, Little Feat and Lynyrd Skynyrd, Daniels blended southern rock, country, blues, swamp music and bluegrass to create an American hybrid that was quite distinct.

He himself played the guitar and fiddle, besides singing on his albums, but he was also known to play bass with Bob Dylan on three albums including ‘Nashville Skyline’. Appearances with Leonard Cohen, Hank Williams and Al Kooper coloured his bio-data. 

To pay tribute to Daniels, it would be ideal to play the greatest hits found on this album. The songs are rooted in American culture, and there are references to Texas, Dallas, Georgia and Alabama. Appropriately, the collection begins with ‘The South’s Gonna Do It’, which promotes the role of southern rock, and is followed up by his most famous number ‘The Devil Went Down To Georgia’, which talks of a duel between the devil and a fiddle player.

Other beauties include the foot-stomping bar-room song ‘Drinkin’ My Baby Goodbye’ and the country-rock piece ‘Long Haired Country Boy’. On ‘Still In Saigon’, he refers to the Vietnam War, whereas ‘Simple Man’ – not connected with the Lynyrd Skynyrd song of the same name – talks of how innocent people are manipulated by wily politicians.

Skynyrd’s famous ‘Free Bird’ appears as a cover version, and ‘The Legend Of Woolly Swamp’ talks of a ghost in a swamp area. ‘Uneasy Rider’ is a semi-spoken marvel with a guitar and keyboard backdrop, and on ‘The Pledge Of Allegiance’, Daniels reads out a narrative talking of American values.

Often criticised for being racist and fanatic in his personal opinions, Daniels was loved for his rootsy sound. Besides the electric guitar and fiddle, one hears a lot of keyboards, acoustic guitar, pedal steel, slide guitar, bass and drums. As they say, the songs have got ‘punch’.