In 1970 Gregg Allman committed a felony to record “Midnight Rider”. The Allman Brothers vocalist finished up the tricky third verse well after midnight, but he still wanted to record the song while it was fresh. So he smashed a window at Capricorn Sound Studio in Macon, climbed inside, and tracked the song with just an acoustic guitar. Allman avoided a breaking-and-entering charge, and the song became his signature tune.
“Midnight Rider” also cemented southern rock as a distinctive genre, as a new generation of good ol’ boys married rock’s guitar theatrics with the swampy rhythms of r&b, the precision chops of jazz and the lowdown imagery of the blues. Critics often viewed it as a reaction against the social upheavals of the 1960s, though many of its practitioners complicated that narrative.
While many of the first-wave bands split during the 1980s or mutated into zombie versions of themselves, southern rock continued to flourish into the 2000s, with acts like The Drive-By Truckers and The Alabama Shakes rewriting the genre’s rules and offering a very different depiction of the South.
So keep on smilin’ and keep on scrollin’ for Uncut’s list of the top 20 southern rock albums of all time.
20
Lucero
That Much Further West
(Liberty & Lament, 2003)
Recorded mostly in their Memphis practice space, Lucero’s third album combines southern rock and a little bit of postmillennial punk, pitting Ben Nichols’ howling vocals against drummer Roy Berry’s counterintuitive drumming. They bring a ragged drama to these songs about joining the Army, breaking up in bars, and burning up the highway. (That’s John Murry ripping a guitar solo on “Hate & Jealousy”.)
Essential track: “Hate & Jealousy”
19
Cowboy
5’ll Getcha 10
(Capricorn, 1971)
Tommy Talton and Scott Boyer’s voices blended together into brotherly harmonies, which when combined with weeping pedal steel created some of the breeziest southern rock of the ‘70s. Cowboy toured with The Allman Brothers Band and Eric Clapton covered their song “Please Be With Me”, but the duo were overshadowed by their peers even as they pushed the genre in new directions.
Essential track: “Please Be With Me”
18
Georgia Satellites
Georgia Satellites
(Elektra, 1987)
An unexpected hit in the late 1980s, “Keep Your Hands To Yourself” is a potent dose of horndog attitude that was later covered by Hank Jr. and Garth Brooks. Dig a little deeper into The Georgia Satellites’ debut, though, and songs like “Battleship Chains” and “Red Light” reveal their penchant for punchy hooks and clever wordplay.
Essential track: “Battleship Chains”
17
James Luther Dickinson
Dixie Fried
(Atlantic, 1972)
Best known as a session player and producer, in 1972 Jim Dickinson tried his hand at a solo career. Dixie Fried flopped at the time but has become a landmark of eccentric southern rock, especially the reckless “Wine” and the psychedelic closer “Casey Jones/On The Road Again”. Dickinson took more than 30 years to follow it up.
Essential track: “Wine”
16
Steve Earle
Copperhead Road
(UNI/MCA, 1988)
After establishing himself with his 1986 debut Guitar Town and stumbling with his 1987 follow-up Exit 0, Steve Earle made the heaviest album of his career, full of story-songs about bootleggers, soldiers, and hardbitten criminals. The Pogues join him on standout “Johnny Come Lately”, which sounds like the yank’s side of Elvis Costello’s “American Without Tears”).
Essential track: “Copperhead Road”
15
ZZ Top
Tres Hombres
(London, 1973)
Before they grew out their beards and zoomed around in that tricked-out ’33 Ford coupe, the Houston trio specialized in a greasy form of Texas boogie-rock that combined southern rock with dusty Texas blues. Fleet and funky, Tres Hombres remains their finest moment and the first of many charting albums.
Essential track: “La Grange”
14
drivin n cryin
Mystery Road
(Island, 1989)
Hugely popular throughout the South, this Georgia band’s third album gracefully straddles old-school southern rock and pre-grunge underground rock, with frontman Kevn Kinney emerging as a southern beatnik poet with a flair for vivid storytelling and eccentric turns of phrase. “Straight to Hell” and especially “Honeysuckle Blue” (recently covered by Jason Isbell) are classics of the genre.
Essential track: “Honeysuckle Blue”
13
Molly Hatchet
Flirtin’ With Disaster
(Epic, 1979)
No state produced more southern rock bands than Florida, home to the Allmans, Skynyrd, and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Molly Hatchet hailed from Jacksonville, taking their name from a murderous prostitute and imbuing their hard rock with rubbery boogie rhythms. Their cover of The Valentinos’ “Used To Love Here” rips nearly as hard as the Stones’ version, but sadly, Danny Joe Brown left the band shortly after this album’s release.
Essential track: “Whiskey Man”
12
Alabama Shakes
Boys & Girls
(ATO, 2012)
Within in a year this Yellowhammer State band went from playing dives around the South to headlining SNL and notching a top ten album. Such a meteoric rise is no mystery: The Shakes rock like a band that’s played a lifetime of gigs, and frontwoman Brittany Howard holds court with authority, mixing gritty Muscle Shoals soul with even gritter Macon rock.
Essential track: “Hold On”
11
.38 Special
Wild-Eyed Southern Boys
(A&M, 1981)
Named after a standard police-issue pistol, this Jacksonville quintet distinguished themselves with their strong pop instincts. “Hang On Loosely” swings with barely contained energy, with Donnie Van Zant — little brother of Ronnie — sounding like Springsteen on the bayou rather than the boardwalk.
Essential track: “Hang On Loosely”
10
My Morning Jacket
It Still Moves
(ATO, 2003)
This Louisville band were lo-fi weirdos until they signed with ATO Records. Their third album fully embraced southern rock but leaves their idiosyncrasies (reverby vocals, knotty jams) intact. The high-flying guitars on “One Big Holiday” sound like Skynyrd, while “Easy Morning Rebel” recruits some Stax veterans for a heraldic horn line.
Essential track: “One Big Holiday”
9
The Black Crowes
The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion
(Def American, 1992)
Their quintuple-platinum debut presented them as straightforward southern rockers, but these Georgians let their freak flag fly on their follow-up. Chris Robinson revels in his hippie charisma, while Rich Robinson ascends to guitar hero status thanks to his impeccable sense of timing.
Essential track: “Sometimes Salvation”
8
Wet Willie
Keep On Smilin’
(Capricorn, 1974)
Originally hailing from Mobile, Alabama, Wet Willie relocated to Macon, Georgia — the epicentre of southern rock — and brought with them a swinging rhythm section, some sassy backing vocals, and a gruff-voiced frontman who played a mean sax. The title track on their third album is a perfect evocation of those southern days when the humidity makes anything other than smilin’ impossible.
Essential track: “Keep On Smilin’”
7
Bobbie Gentry
The Delta Sweete
(Capitol, 1968)
The Mississippi-born, California-based Gentry followed up her epochal single “Ode To Billie Joe” with this ambitious concept album about her memories of the South. Every song has its own bag of tricks: the country funk of “Okolona River Bottom Band”, the kaleidoscopic swirl of “Refractions”, and especially the downhome sound collage of “Reunion” (released nearly a year before The Beatles’ similar “Revolution No. 9”).
Essential track: “Okolona River Bottom Band”
6
The Outlaws
The Outlaws
(Arista, 1975)
Not to be confused with all those country desperados out in Texas, these Outlaws hailed from (where else?) Florida and mixed Eagles-style harmonies with a nimble three-guitar attack. Hughie Thomasson and Henry Paul take turns singing lead, with Thomasson sounding especially world weary on their top 40 single “There Goes Another Love Song”.
Essential track: “There Goes Another Love Song”
5
R.E.M.
Reckoning
(IRS, 1984)
Ninety miles north of Macon in the sleepy college town of Athens, Georgia, this quartet rewrote the rules of southern rock. If their debut sounded like it emanated from some kudzu-clogged corner of the South, their followup sounded like a heavy-touring band missing home. Songs like “Harborcoat” and “Little America” sound like postcards home.
Essential track: “So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry)”
4
The Marshall Tucker Band
Where We All Belong
(Capricorn, 1974)
Their biggest hits (“Can’t You See”, “Fire On The Mountain”) appear on other albums, but Where We All Belong is still the best introduction to this wily South Carolina band. It’s a double album that mixes nimble studio tracks (“This Ol’ Cowboy” sounds like Western Swing) with runaway-train live cuts (“Take The Highway” is a fine showcase for Jerry Eubanks’ flute).
Essential track: “In My Own Way”
3
Drive-By Truckers
Southern Rock Opera
(Soul Dump Records, 2001)
The Drive-By Truckers bring all their professional and personal experience to bear on this southern rock album about southern rock. One third documents the frustrations of a new generation of good ol’ boys, another third smartly dissects southern politics, and the final third tells the story of Skynyrd with more insights — and better riffs — than any book.
Essential track: “Ronnie And Neil”
2
The Allman Brothers Band
At Fillmore East
(Capricorn, 1971)
The Allmans released two studio albums before Duane’s death in October 1971, but this double live, recorded up in New York City, remains the highlight of their catalog. The Allmans thrived onstage, playing with loose precision that straddles rock and jazz. They were all master improvisers, especially guitarists Duane Allman and Dickey Betts, who both play with an intense backwoods eloquence. It’s still one of the finest live albums ever recorded.
Essential track: “In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed”
1
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd
(MCA Sounds Of The South, 1973)
Honing their attack via countless hours in a swamp shack they called the Hell House, Lynyrd Skynyrd were a crack live band who held their own opening for The Who and floored audiences with epic closer “Free Bird”. Ronnie Van Zant always gave them something to jam about, his songs alternately wry (“I Ain’t The One”) and melancholy (“Tuesday’s Gone”) and slyly subversive (“Gimme Three Steps”). Theirs is a vivid and thorny depiction of the South in all its contradictions.
Essential track: “Gimme Three Steps”