Southern+rock

Much like jazz, Southern rock isn't just a musical genre, it's an institution, one that is interwoven into the fabric of 20th century American popular culture and is distinctly indigenous to American shores. As such, there have been countless anthologies and budget-line collections loosely assembling a smattering of the sound and its rich diversity, but nothing like this. Southern Rock: Gold isn't just an anthology, it's an anthropological and sociological document of some of the greatest rock music ever to come out of the American South, complete with a veritable who's who of the style…

Southern Rock Opera is the third studio album by the American rock band Drive-By Truckers, released in 2001. Originally released as a double album covering an ambitious range of subject matter from the politics of race to 1970s stadium rock, Southern Rock Opera either imagines, or filters, every topic through the context of legendary Southern band Lynyrd Skynyrd.

This blues-roots rock supergroup of sorts features musicians bred, if not always born, in the South. The only real royalty would be singer/songwriter/percussionist Cyril Neville, who shares lead vocals with younger but still established blues-rock journeymen guitarists Mike Zito and Devon Allman. Bassist Charlie Wooton from Zydefunk and ex-Derek Trucks drummer Yonrico Scott comprise the solid rhythm section rounding out this quintet. With all this instrumental and vocal firepower, the musical possibilities of mixing Neville's familial, funky New Orleans swamp with Zito's soulful blues and Allman's tougher rock are enticing.

For its first live album since the fatal 1977 plane crash, Lynyrd Skynyrd drafted a few friends to sit in as guest artists, including former Dixie Dregs guitarist Steve Morse, fiddle wizard Charlie Daniels, and former Marshall Tucker Band guitarist Toy Caldwell, who contributes some of his unique thumb-picking guitar work to the J.J. Cale tune "Call Me the Breeze." Johnny VanZant, younger brother of the late Ronnie VanZant, steps forward as lead singer, and even pulls in his other brother Donnie of .38 Special to sing along, and Artimus Pyle proves that he still has what it takes to provide the backbeat for one of the South's most enduring legends. While Southern by the Grace of God may not match the intensity of One More from the Road, it still delivers some excellent Southern jamming, pairing a few of the South's best-loved musicians with one of the world's legendary rock & roll bands.

The impeccable steel guitar sound of the great Russ Hicks is the driving force behind Barefoot Jerry, whose 1971 debut Southern Delight and self-titled 1972 follow-up make up this welcome reissue.