Southern rock is a type of rock music and a style of American music. It began in the southern part of the United States, influenced by rock and roll, country, and blues. This music often uses electric guitars and vocal singing.

History

Rock music began mostly in the American South. Many famous rock and roll musicians from the 1950s, such as Bo Diddley, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, and Jerry Lee Lewis, were from the Deep South. However, in the middle 1960s, the British Invasion and the rise of folk rock and psychedelic rock changed the focus of new rock music. It moved from rural areas to large cities like Liverpool, London, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco.

In the 1960s, rock musician Lonnie Mack combined black and white roots-music styles in his rock songs. His 1963 hit "Memphis" is an example. Music historian Dick Shurman called Mack's work from that time "a prototype of what later could be called Southern rock." In the late 1960s, bands like The Box Tops, Sir Douglas Quintet, and Dale Hawkins were popular in southern states.

The Allman Brothers Band, from Jacksonville, Florida, made their national debut in 1969. Duane Allman's guitar work on recordings for Hour Glass and other artists in 1968 caught the attention of Rick Hall, owner of FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. In November 1968, Hall hired Allman to play on an album with Wilson Pickett. Allman's work on the 1968 album Hey Jude earned him a full-time job as a session musician and brought him to the attention of other musicians, including Eric Clapton. Clapton later said he heard Pickett's version of "Hey Jude" on the radio and called Atlantic Records to find out who played guitar on the song. He described the performance as "the best rock guitar playing on an R&B record."

Author Scott B. Bomar suggests the term "Southern rock" may have been first used in 1972 by Mo Slotin in a review of an Allman Brothers Band concert in Atlanta's The Great Speckled Bird newspaper.

Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident in 1971. The Allman Brothers Band's music blended blues rock with long, jam-style songs influenced by jazz, country, and folk. Gregg Allman said all rock music began in the southern United States and that "Southern rock" was a redundant term, like calling it "rock rock."

In the early 1970s, popular musicians in the South included Creedence Clearwater Revival (from California), Delaney & Bonnie, Janis Joplin, Leon Russell, and Tony Joe White.

Lynyrd Skynyrd, from Jacksonville, Florida, is known for songs like "Free Bird," "Sweet Home Alabama," "Saturday Night Special," and "What's Your Name." Other Southern rock bands from the 1970s include Wet Willie, the Atlanta Rhythm Section, ZZ Top, Black Oak Arkansas, Cowboy, Potliquor, Barefoot Jerry, Grinderswitch, Sea Level, Blackfoot, Johnny Winter, and the Edgar Winter Group.

Charlie Daniels' 1970 self-titled debut album was important for Southern rock. Music writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine said the album showed how the genre could sound and how country music could keep its traditional spirit while rocking. Daniels later formed the Charlie Daniels Band, which combined rock, country, blues, and jazz. Erlewine described the band's sound as a "distinctly Southern blend" that focused on improvisation. After the success of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," a song Erlewine called a "roaring country-disco fusion," Daniels shifted his style to country music and helped shape the sound of country-rock.

The Marshall Tucker Band, from Spartanburg, South Carolina, played at many Allman Brothers Band concerts. Their music used blues, country rock, and blues rock. They also worked with Charlie Daniels. Their 1973 self-titled album included the hit "Can't You See." The band is best known for "Fire on the Mountain" and "Heard It in a Love Song," which charted in 1977.

Lynyrd Skynyrd played music influenced by British hard rock until a 1977 airplane crash killed lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and two other members. After this, members Allen Collins and Gary Rossington started the Rossington Collins Band.

By the early 1980s, the Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd had broken up, and Capricorn Records had gone out of business. Many Southern rock bands shifted to arena rock. With the rise of 1980s music styles like new wave, heavy metal, and synth pop, Southern rock groups were mostly found in smaller venues. Bands like Molly Hatchet, Outlaws, Georgia Satellites, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Jimmie Vaughan, Point Blank, Tom Petty, Bruce Hornsby, Steve Earle, Arc Angels, Dangerous Toys, Artimus Pyle, and Kentucky Headhunters became popular in the 1980s and 1990s.

In the 1990s, the Allman Brothers Band reunited and became active again. The jam band scene also revived interest in long, improvised music.

Georgia's alternative rock band R.E.M. released the album Fables of the Reconstruction, which references the Reconstruction Era and is considered a Southern Gothic album. The Black Crowes became popular in the 1990s with albums like Shake Your Money Maker and Southern Harmony and Musical Companion.

New musicians such as the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Warren Haynes, Gov't Mule, Chris Duarte Group, the Allman Betts Band, Blackberry Smoke, Whiskey Myers, Whiskeytown, the Black Crowes, Dixie Witch, Widespread Panic, and Kid Rock continue the Southern rock tradition.

In 2005, singer Bo Bice performed Southern rock songs on American Idol, including the Allman Brothers' "Whipping Post" and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" and "Sweet Home Alabama" with the band on stage.

Southern rock is still played on radio in the United States, mostly on oldies and classic rock stations. Older bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers Band still perform for large crowds.

Books about Southern rock's history have been written in the 2000s, including Skydog: The Duane Allman Story by Randy Poe and Dixie Lullaby by Mark Kemp. Lynyrd Skynyrd's former manager, Ron Eckerman, wrote Turn It Up. Sociologist Jason T

Southern metal

Southern metal is a music genre that mixes Southern rock with heavy metal. It began in the 1990s and is played by bands like Corrosion of Conformity, Black Label Society, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, and Texas Hippie Coalition.

General and cited references

• Patoski, Joe Nick (1980). "Southern Rock". The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-73938-8.
• Kemp, Mark (2004). Dixie Lullaby: A Story of Music, Race and New Beginnings in a New South. New York: Free Press/Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-3794-3.