Magical Moment Photos

TOM CRAIN AND CHARLIE DANIELS JAMMING AT WINTERLAND ON DECEMBER 13, 1975. PHOTO BY BEN UPHAM.

CHARLIE DANIELS BAND-
“PLAYS SOUTHERN ROCK”
THE BEE
DANVILLE, VIRGINIA
MAY 2, 1974

A different sun is rising nowadays for Charlie Daniels, who at age 37 is running headlong into the springtime of his rock ‘n roll life. Daniels and his band are the latest wrinkle in a form of music dubbed “Southern Rock.” It was born with The Allman Brothers and it’s taking on added dimension with the Charlie Daniels Band.
It’s also been a long time coming, says Daniels, who can now lay solid claim to the distinction of being the most successful rock artist to emerge from this country music capital. Before his rise, however, the North Carolina native had found himself partially moored in a false country music image. “They ain’t nothing in the world as powerful as telling the truth. I feel I’m playing the truth now,” said the bearded, hulking guitarist-vocalist who now lives on a farm 20 miles from here. “It’s my own music. I was raised with it. My mother has always liked boogie music, but back then it was called race music,” he said, tugging gently at a gold earring on his right earlobe. “It takes the music out of the skyscrapers and brings it down to the people. Southern music has always been like that.”
Charlie’s career is an enigma. He came to Nashville seven years ago with, of all things, rock music in his blood. He stuck it out as a reputable country studio sideman — making $40,000 a year in sessions with such notables as Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr and Leonard Cohen. Last year, he struck a responsive chord with his composition and recording of “Uneasy Rider,” a contrified tune which rode to the top of the charts. But the song wasn’t at all what Daniels is about.
Daniels refers to “my rock,” and speaks often of being truthful to his own musical sentiments. He comes across as an authentic talent; interest mostly is revealing where, his musical mind is and backhandedly scoffing at the success he had found within the country market. “You have to go the extra
mile to really get anything,” he says. “I’m not so conscious of where the music is headed. ‘Rock’ has gotten to be such an ambiguous term anyway. “I feel like instead of us coming around to where the industry is, it’s a matter of the industry coming around to where we’ve been. Damn, I’ve been playing boogie music for a long time — a real long time. We’ve been playing that music all our lives and nobody wanted to hear it until the last 3 or 4 years. My latest album, “Way Down Yonder,” is packed with a variety of tunes — blues, country, hard rock. But the backbone is boogie, southern fashion.
“People will say we sound like the Allman Brothers. They do the same with the Marshall Tucker Band. Sure, you can hear similarities all day long. You can take anything out of context and say it sounds like other music. But it’s in us. What can you do?” he asked with a broad laugh from his chubby face.
Daniels writes all the tunes, sings lead vocals and plays lead guitar and fiddle. Keyboards, two drummers, rhythm and bass guitars round out the sound. It’s a total sound — in that nothing is left hanging, the musical theme clamors with distinction and the variety is impressive. Again, it’s far from “Uneasy Rider,” a million seller which created a false image for the Charlie Daniels Band. “Let’s put it like this,” he said. “People are still finding out what the band’s like. It’s going to take a few more hit records, a few more groups, albums and touring to really drive it home.”

CHARLIE DANIELS BAND DISCOGRAPHY:

1971 Charlie Daniels
1972 John, Grease and Wolfman
1973 Honey in the Rock
1974 Way Down Yonder
1974 Fire on the Mountain
1975 Nightrider
1976 Volunteer Jam
1976 Saddle Tramp
1976 High Lonesome
1977 Midnight Wind
1978 Volunteer Jam III and IV
1979 Million Mile Reflections
1980 Volunteer Jam VI
1980 Full Moon
1981 Volunteer Jam VII
1982 Windows
1983 A Decade of Hits
1985 Me and the Boys
1987 Powder Keg
1988 Homesick Heroes
1989 Simple Man
1990 Christmas Time Down South
1991 Renegade
1994 The Door
1995 Same Ol’ Me
1996 Steel Witness
1997 Blues Hat
1998 Fiddle Fire
1999 Tailgate Party
2000 Road Dogs
2001 Live!
2003 Freedom and Justice for All
2005 Songs from the Longleaf Pines 2007 Live from Iraq
2007 Deuces

CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO SEE CHARLIE DANIELS BAND PHOTOS:
CHARLIE DANIELS BAND PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM
AND
CHARLIE DANIELS BAND FINE ART AMERICA IMAGES BY BEN UPHAM

CHARLIE DANIELS ROCKS WINTERLAND ON 12-13-75. PHOTO ART BY BEN UPHAM.

CHARLIE DANIELS BAND
“EXCITING SOUTHERN SOUND”
BY DEBORAH NIKKEL
BUCKS COUNTY COURIER TIMES
LEVITTOWN, PA. JANUARY 26, 1975

The Charlie Daniels Band is the first act to a triple-header country rock show with Elvin Bishop and the Marshall Tucker Band currently touring the United States. They get standing ovations from Northeastern audiences who have never heard of them. Charlie’s fiddle and guitar sounds grab the audience from the moment he steps on stage till the moment he leaves.
Traveling with what has to be among the most exciting and accomplished acts in the country, they are making sound waves that delight and inspire their audiences.
The Southern sound can be described as a combination of blues and country. There are two basic strains, the hillbilly with mandolins, fiddles, and accoustic guitars, usually associated with white musicians. And there is the black Southern music, or “blues.” Southern music today is a combination of fiddle and blues guitar, according to Ron Hunstman, record promoter for the Daniels Band.
Most notable for Charlie Daniels, is that his group, one-and-one-half years old, has not sold out to standard commercialism Instead, they have incorporated a country beat with its surprises, humor and grit — and given it a dynamite rock gait. The band grew up on one of the richest diets of contemporary music. The blues, gospel music, country music, bluegrass, folk music, and early rock and roll. It is the integration of those influences that give such special flavor.
Tall, large, blue-eyed, shadowed by a magnificent brown cowboy hat, Charlie clomps onstage, hooks a saddle girth strap over his broad shoulders, drawls with enthusiasm “It’s good to be alive,” and begins. What follows is his alotted hour of foot stomping, knee-slapping music. The personal rhythm a listener sets is constantly broken, and as he loses the beat, he listens in awe to the fast addagio’s and intricate fingerings the Southern boys offer.
Much of Charlie’s work has been in recording studios — with the Youngbloods, Bob Dylan, & Ringo Starr. He formed this band because he wanted to work with “warm bodies instead of cold microphones.”
His philosophy “All we do is play music, we don’t dress up, sparkle our noses, just pure and simple music.”
His roots are actually in Macon, Tenn. , but the band’s identity seems to rest in the Nashville scene, which Charlie describes as having “good country and MOR (middle of the road) stuff”.
As they play more, Charlie feels they are developing their own style, apart from the others, specifically the Allman Brothers, with whom they were often compared in the beginning. Charlies goal is to “get out the music, once it’s out the song belongs to everyone — it comes from lots of work and feeling.”
His lyrics are honest and straightforward. “We pronounce and use words like normal conversation.” As we speak, Sam McPherson, harmonicist and senior member of the traveling show, bobs in and proclaims enthusiastically “Charlie I love you, you were great.” Charlie grins and says, “I love you too,” and turns to me and says, “Isn’t he great He’s so good to me.” And Sam begins to explain. “We experienced hard things together as kids, we earned our friendship through our hands. We had similar religions and financial-type background, even ate the same kind of food, and drank the same drinks. It’s a friendship you can’t conceive or learn right away, but once it works you’ll never forget it.” And then they launch into a friendly give-and-take discussion of southern hospitality, lending just that as they talk. “We take people at face value and express our love whenever we see him . . . and it’s the same everywhere, we don’t notice differences in attitude (when they’re out of the South. We don’t know how to be afraid of people!

CHARLIE DANIELS BAND DISCOGRAPHY:
1971 Charlie Daniels
1972 John, Grease and Wolfman
1973 Honey in the Rock
1974 Way Down Yonder
1974 Fire on the Mountain
1975 Nightrider
1976 Volunteer Jam
1976 Saddle Tramp
1976 High Lonesome
1977 Midnight Wind
1978 Volunteer Jam III and IV
1979 Million Mile Reflections
1980 Volunteer Jam VI
1980 Full Moon
1981 Volunteer Jam VII
1982 Windows
1983 A Decade of Hits
1985 Me and the Boys
1987 Powder Keg
1988 Homesick Heroes
1989 Simple Man
1990 Christmas Time Down South
1991 Renegade
1994 The Door
1995 Same Ol’ Me
1996 Steel Witness
1997 Blues Hat
1998 Fiddle Fire
1999 Tailgate Party
2000 Road Dogs
2001 Live!
2003 Freedom and Justice for All
2005 Songs from the Long leaf Pines
2007 Live from Iraq
2007 Deuces

CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO SEE CHARLIE DANIELS BAND PHOTOS:
CHARLIE DANIELS BAND PHOTOS BY BEN UPHAM
AND
CHARLIE DANIELS BAND FINE ART AMERICA IMAGES BY BEN UPHAM

CHARLIE DANIELS PLAYING SOME COLORFUL GUITAR AT WINTERLAND IN 1976. PHOTO/ART BY BEN UPHAM.

THE CHARLIE DANIELS BAND-
“SOUTHERN ROCK BAND MOVING UP”
BY BRUCE MEYER
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
NEWS JOURNAL
MANSFIELD, OHIO NOVEMBER 30, 1975

Charlie Daniels likes a lot of things. He likes the Tennessee hills east of Nashville, and Red Man chewing tobacco, and Acme cowboy boots, and extra-large blue jeans. He likes playing his guitar, a 1958 Gibson Les Paul best of all.
“Yeah, I enjoy playing”, he says, “If it wasn’t for being’ gone from mama and the baby I’d do it all the time But music’s secondary to them”.
Since Daniels and his hot Southern rock band spend about 250 days a year on the road, doing one-nighters in every conceivable kind of town and city (they put 8,000 miles on their new bus in the first three weeks they had it), you might say music is just barely secondary.
Charlie Daniels music is in the mainstream of Southern rock, powerful, rhythmic and built around long, jazz-like improvisations. The voice is strictly another instrument and regardless of the effort put into lyrics, they rank behind lengthy solos and the overall driving sound.
Southern bands enjoy jamming with one another and this intramural cross pollenization has distilled the music, until it resembles the fine Tennessee sippin’ whiskey of which Daniels is so fond.
And although the Charlie Daniels Band is not the most well known of the Southern bands (that honor likely would to to the Allman Brothers Band) it does seem to occupy a pivotal position.
Witness Daniels” famous “Volunteer Jam ” which seems to be turning into the major annual event of Southern music, attracting musicians from any number of other groups from the Allmans, Wet Willie, Marshall Tucker, Grinder Switch — even Alvin Lee of Ten Years After, for several hours of unlimited
powerplaying. In the middle of it all on stage is Daniels himself, first on guitar, then on fiddle with his stunning double-time version of “The Orange Blossom Special”. Charlie is always moving with an agility of feet and fingers startling in one with so much-uh… surplus flesh.
Keep an eye on the CDB — they could yet turn into the Next Big Thing from the South. It could be about their time.

CHARLIE DANIELS BAND DISCOGRAPHY:
1971 Charlie Daniels
1972 John, Grease and Wolfman
1973 Honey in the Rock
1974 Way Down Yonder
1974 Fire on the Mountain
1975 Nightrider
1976 Volunteer Jam
1976 Saddle Tramp
1976 High Lonesome
1977 Midnight Wind
1978 Volunteer Jam III and IV
1979 Million Mile Reflections
1980 Volunteer Jam VI
1980 Full Moon
1981 Volunteer Jam VII
1982 Windows
1983 A Decade of Hits
1985 Me and the Boys
1987 Powder Keg
1988 Homesick Heroes
1989 Simple Man
1990 Christmas Time Down South
1991 Renegade
1994 The Door
1995 Same Ol’ Me
1996 Steel Witness
1997 Blues Hat
1998 Fiddle Fire
1999 Tailgate Party
2000 Road Dogs
2001 Live!
2003 Freedom and Justice for All
2005 Songs from the Longleaf Pines
2007 Live from Iraq
2007 Deuces

CLICK LINKS BELOW TO SEE CHARLIE DANIELS BAND PHOTOS:
CHARLIE DANIELS BAND PHOTOS by BEN UPHAM
AND
CHARLIE DANIELS BAND FINE ART AMERICA IMAGES BY BEN UPHAM