Last year, I was in Nashville bar hopping with a friend. He wanted me to see The Mercy Lounge, so we dropped in for a drink. We both order a beer and I ask the bartender “Who is playing tonight?” He told me, but I didn’t recognize the name. “Who are they?” I ask.
“They’re an Allman Brothers cover band.”
“Check, please.”
We go out into the parking lot and see a van packed with frat guys leaking pot smoke from the cracked windows.
“I’ll bet that’s the band,” I say. Just at that moment, the passenger door opens and one of the occupants vomits profusely onto the pavement.
Allman Brothers, I really like the early ZZ Top and I enjoyed their MTV stuff, but Allman Brothers are a great band and one of my top 10. In fact I am only planning on one concert this year and it is Allman Brothers.
I’ll inject Creedence Clearwater Revival into the mix. They may have been California boys, but they tapped into the Southern sound big time.
I like they way Richie Linterberger put it on Allmusic.com: “Creedence Clearwater Revival brought things back to their roots with their concise synthesis of rockabilly, swamp pop, R&B, and country… The band’s genius was their ability to accomplish this with the economic, primal power of a classic rockabilly ensemble.”
I’m also a big ZZ Top fan, and had a chance to see them play in an outdoor venue a couple of years back. They kicked serious butt.
However, ABB reigns. Check out some of their classic work on Wolfgang’s Concert Vault where the crafty Bill Graham taped thousands of concerts he produced, and this site (which has several hundred available, and adds five more each week) offers them for listening on demand or to download for ten bucks. (Some concerts last two hours).
And, no, I don’t have any affiliation with the site. I just love that Bill (real name Wolfgang, hence the name of the site) had the foresight to record the music and the current owners have the desire to share.
What, we are 45 posts into this and nobody has said that “Dreams” by the Allman Bros is there favorite song? It is mine. Melissa is #2 for me. I like and listen to ZZ Top, but they are not the Southern Rock legends like the Allmans. I have to add to the list of great Southern Rock bands The Georgia Satellites.
IMHO, SRV is blues, sometimes rocking blues, but not Southern Rock. And ZZ Top is more blues than rock, as well.
I will add my $.02 that ABB beats ZZT hands down as “Southern Rockers”. Maybe closer if considered without characterization.
Trivia time: Back in my college days, there was a local ABB cover band, complete with dual drummers. Those guys were so totally in synch it was mesmerizing.
May I nominate The Outlaws’ “Green Grass and High Tides” as one of the all-time great Southern Rock recordings?
Now make up your mind. Are we talking about a genre (I was. Lowell George’s playing is the essence of Southern Rock) or are we disqualifying anyone from a CA band. If that’s the case Duane and Gregg will regret being in Hour Glass and playing all those gigs at the Whiskey and recording in California even though “It’s Not My Cross To Bear” ended up an *Allman Brothers * song.
… sorry, had to go there. Seriously, for something newer for the catalog, Southern Culture On The Skids is pretty good. But Allman Brothers are definately the best.
I love the Truckers - I suspect that their subject material is too depressing and negative for a lot of people, but they rock hard. They have three guitars so they have a great wall of distortion sound.
Kings of Leon are also a current Southern rock band.
Both of these bands are generally confined to the indie/alternative scene. I think that most mainstream American listeners don’t want to hear rock singers with pronounced regional accents.
