When the '72 hit "Uneasy Rider" hit the radio airwaves, few people knew that the big, fiddle-playing, cowboy from Wilmington, NC (and later moved to Mt. Juliet, TN) was the session musician that played the guitar intro to Bobby Bare's "Detroit City", or that he was the session guitarist on Bob Dylan's "Nashville Skyline" album. Yes...just before Bobby Bare's legendary vocal lines become audible in one of his biggest hits there was that unknown Nashville sessions guitarist named Charlie Daniels doing that now signature guitar intro to the big radio hit, "Detroit City". Later he would record his own lps under his own name, Capitol Record's eponymous "Charlie Daniels", Kama Sutra's "TE John, Grease, and Wolfman", "Honey in the Rock (which yielded "Uneasy Rider"), and the breakthrough "Whiskey", to such Southern Rock staples as "Fire on the Mountain", "Nightrider", to Epic's "Saddle Tramp", "High Lonesome", "Midnight Wind", "Million Mile Reflections", "Full Moon", "Windows", and "Me & the Boys", and then others as the late 80's gave way to change that would forever alter the face of what we lovingly came to know as "Southern Rock".

The Charlie Daniels Band, for this intent and purpose, was legitimately comprised of dual drummers Fred Edwards and Don Murray, bass player Charlie Hayward, key-boardist/pianist/vocalist Joel "Taz" DiGregorio, guitarist/vocalist Tommy Crain, and then the big man himself, Charlie Daniels, on guitar, fiddle, and lead vocalist/band leader par excellance.

Southern Rock is attributed as being a product of the work of The Allman Bros. Band, beginning in 1969 and continuing until the deaths of Duane Allman and Berry Oakley a year later, but when Southern Rock became a genre recognised by the American mainstream by 1974, it was the big, cowboy hat-wearing, fiddle-playing Mt. Juliet, Tennessean who championed the cause - and he was more than willing to share the spot-light, giving due credit in his songs to such little known acts (in 1974 anyway) as Wet Willie, Barefoot Jerry, The Marshall Tucker Band, calling Richard Betts (Allman Bros. legendary guitarist) by name and referencing the red Gibson ES-335 guitar Betts played early on, and of course there's the opening line "The train at Grinderswitch is running right on time" which references Dru Lombar's band "Grinderswitch" (which,incidentally, is the town Grand Ol' Opry Star Minnie Pearl hailed from), and "people down in Florida can't be still when ol' Lynyrd Skynyrd's pickin' down in Jacksonville".

If you're a fan of this music, this is a fantastic place to start as it covers the high spots and finer moments of the career of one of Ol' Mother Dixie's proudest sons, Charlie Daniels and the band.

It's such a shame that "High Lonesome", "Midnight Wind", and some others in the CDB catalogue, are out of print because those titles contain some of the brightest moments in CDB history.

Check out this collection and search out any other Charlie Daniels product you can find if you want a real taste of what Southern Rock was really all about. Hippies were wearing cowboy hats, cowboy boots, and turning on to Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. "Billy the Kid", "Damn Good Cowboy", "Texas", "Caballo Diablo", "Midnight Wind", "Birmingham Blues", "Saddle Tramp", Tommy Crain's fantastic "Cumberland Mtn. #9" and "Lonesome Boy From Dixie", and Taz's "New York City Kingsize Rosewood Bed" are the stuff Southern music was made of..."Ain't it good to be alive and be in Tennessee?" Yeah...I was born and raised in the Volunteer State and I have to agree...it certainly WAS good in those days.

Wilmington, North Carolina native and country/southern rock guitarist/singer/fiddler Charlie Daniels has been in the music business a long time. He's played on albums by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and many others. But Charlie is most famous for his extraordinary ability to play the fiddle (that's a violin to some of you). He's also written quite a few great classic southern rock songs, too, and most of those songs are right here on The Ultimate Charlie Daniels Band, a 2-disc set of his best songs. All the biggies are here, including his first hit, Uneasy Rider, the hilarious cross-country saga of a country-boy hippie, who has to out-smart several hostile rednecks to save his skin. Long Haired Country Boy, The South's Gonna Do It Again, and The Devil Went Down To Georgia are all rock classics that highlight the country/southern rock sounds of this very talented musician and his competent band. Saddle Tramp and High Lonesome show off the jazz side of the CDB with cool, sleek extended jams. There are some surprises here, too. They do a great version of Eric Clapton's Layla (no kidding). Also here is the rocking tale of a troubled Vietnam vet, Still In Saigon, that gets quite emotional. The CDB also comment on drug addiction with Funky Junky. In (What This World Needs Is) A Few More Rednecks, Charlie sings:

Now they're trying to take my guns away

And that would be just fine

If you take 'em away from the criminals first

I'll gladly give ya mine.

Give 'em hell, Charlie!

I was a semi fan of CDB back in the 70's, but never bought any of his records, except for a few singles and the comp "A Decade of Hits". That CD has some good songs on it, but being a CD made in the 80's, the sound quality is bad and there were blatant song omissions like "Trudy" and "Reflections". I bought this set hoping for something to better represent CDB in my collection, and it delivered. The sound quality is a vast improvement and it's a much more complete set, though I also wonder why "In America" is not included. I was never familiar with any post 1980 CDB music (been more of a hard rock fan since 1980), and I'm surprised at how much of disc 2 that I like even more than the 70's stuff. I'm an instant fan of songs like "Cowboy Hat In Dallas", "Drinkin' My Baby Goodbye" and "Simple Man", despite not being a big fan of country music. I will be adding a few of his 80's CDs to my collection for sure. I recommend this Compilation.

How can this be the "Ultimate" collection when it omits one of Charlie's biggest country and pop hits? Thanks, but I'll stick with his 14-track "Essential" disc. That's all I have to say about this. Thank you