May 11, 2008
Charlie Daniels Does It Again, and Again, and Again
After more than 50 years in the music business, Charlie Daniels is having a very big year, with induction into the Opry and a batch of new recordings and TV appearances planned.It was a cold Sunday night, the end of a very long weekend for Charlie Daniels. The night before, the singer/fiddler/guitarist had been inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, having spent most of his 71 years as a professional musician. After an emotional induction, he proceeded to tear up the Opry, practically sawing through his fiddle and paying tribute to the Opry tradition by leading an all-star ensemble finale of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken."
For anybody else that age, that would probably have been the end of the weekend. But there he was at the Grand Ole Opry House on Sunday, part of an all-star CD/cable TV tribute to Gospel music, How Great Thou Art (the show airs Feb. 9 on Great American Country; the CD arrives Feb. 5). Daniels wasn't coasting, driving the all-star backup band full-tilt through an uptempo "I'll Fly Away." He happily did a second take, just as high-powered as the first and even sawed off an impromptu fiddle tune for the sell-out crowd as the cameras got ready.
Daniels has been at it since the 1950s. Elvis recorded his "It Hurts Me," but Daniels had more success in Nashville as a Columbia Records session player for the likes of Bob Dylan, Flatt & Scruggs and Leonard Cohen. In the ‘70s, he launched a solo career that blended all the music he loved- country, rock, bluegrass, blues, gospel and more - into what became known as Southern Rock. His latest album, Deuces, finds him teamed with some of country's biggest names - Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, Marty Stuart, Brad Paisley and Gretchen Wilson. And he's still on the road, drawing multi-generational, genre-crossing crowds for his herd of hits - "Long Haired Country Boy," "Uneasy Rider," "Still in Saigon," "Drinkin';' My Baby Goodbye," "The South's Gonna Do it Again," "In America,' and his signature, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia."
Somehow, ReZoom managed to sit Charlie Daniels in one place long enough to talk about what keeps this long-haired country boy going after all these years.
For anybody else that age, that would probably have been the end of the weekend. But there he was at the Grand Ole Opry House on Sunday, part of an all-star CD/cable TV tribute to Gospel music, How Great Thou Art (the show airs Feb. 9 on Great American Country; the CD arrives Feb. 5). Daniels wasn't coasting, driving the all-star backup band full-tilt through an uptempo "I'll Fly Away." He happily did a second take, just as high-powered as the first and even sawed off an impromptu fiddle tune for the sell-out crowd as the cameras got ready.
Daniels has been at it since the 1950s. Elvis recorded his "It Hurts Me," but Daniels had more success in Nashville as a Columbia Records session player for the likes of Bob Dylan, Flatt & Scruggs and Leonard Cohen. In the ‘70s, he launched a solo career that blended all the music he loved- country, rock, bluegrass, blues, gospel and more - into what became known as Southern Rock. His latest album, Deuces, finds him teamed with some of country's biggest names - Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, Marty Stuart, Brad Paisley and Gretchen Wilson. And he's still on the road, drawing multi-generational, genre-crossing crowds for his herd of hits - "Long Haired Country Boy," "Uneasy Rider," "Still in Saigon," "Drinkin';' My Baby Goodbye," "The South's Gonna Do it Again," "In America,' and his signature, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia."
Somehow, ReZoom managed to sit Charlie Daniels in one place long enough to talk about what keeps this long-haired country boy going after all these years.
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