RSSThe Charlie Daniels Band [extended]
- Honey in the Rock [Kama Sutra, 1973] B-
- Million Mile Reflections [Epic, 1979] C
- A Decade of Hits [Epic, 1984] B
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Consumer Guide Reviews:
Charlie Daniels: Honey in the Rock [Kama Sutra, 1973]
For a sideman-turned-sortastar, Daniels kicks out genuine jams and takes genuine chances--the raveup on "Revelations," for instance, would sound plumb weird on an Allmans LP. Not a bad songwriter, either. But hardly a remarkable one, and he's a lousy singer--only on "Uneasy Rider," a talking blues as dry as any of Dylan's and a lot more yarnlike, does his voice serve his vision, such as it is. B-
Million Mile Reflections [Epic, 1979]
The adventurous journeyman having long since turned into a professional reactionary, he here offers nine nominally new ways to kick shit down an Interstate divider. Including a hit single lifted from Stephen Vincent Benet, rock and roll heaven south of the Mason-Dixon line, passing criticism of the Ku Klux Klan, and a sentimental reminiscence of "Mississippi," a state the adventurous journeyman fled in an uproar back when he didn't ride so easy. C
A Decade of Hits [Epic, 1984]
"Uneasy Rider" is still perfect--a tall tale of a new outlaw, peace-loving but not a damn fool about it, grabbing a redneck by the symbolic short hair. But a year later "The South's Gonna Do It" sang the praises of long-haired rednecks, and he never looked back. A safer tall tale, the predictable "Devil Went Down to Georgia," put him back on the singles charts in 1979, and in 1980 the Russkie-baiting "America" proved what the self-reliant individualism of "Long Haired Country Boy" was good for. Already pushing fifty, he's just a Southerner of a certain generation. Sometimes he's a lot of fun. If he sang as good as Merle Haggard we might even forgive his jingoism. B