From Nashville cats who play clean as country water to Bible Belt rappers who chronicle the wheelings and dealings of the Dirty South, musicians have a long history of setting the pace, pulse and people of Dixie to music. Told from the perspective of fictitious Tennessean farmer and Confederate soldier Virgil Caine, "Dixie" recalls the final days of the Civil War, when the South struggled in the face of staggering losses and punishing conditions. Released the same year as "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang," Arrested Development's first single sat closer to the socially-conscious camp of hip-hop hippies like PM Dawn, leaving pimps, blunts and Snoop Dogg cameos to the gangstas.

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Southern Rock Opera is the third studio album by the alt country band Drive-By Truckers , released in A double album covering an ambitious range of subject matter from the politics of race to s stadium rock, Southern Rock Opera either imagines, or filters, every topic through the context of legendary Southern band, Lynyrd Skynyrd. The record was originally self-released on Soul Dump Records. The album was re-released on July 16, by Lost Highway Records. The album was financed by issuing promissory notes in exchange for loans from fans, family and friends of the band. The album's artwork was done by Richmond, Virginia artist Wes Freed. The idea for Southern Rock Opera pre-dates the band's formation in The pair discussed writing a semi- autobiographical screenplay about growing up in the South and about the plane crash that almost ended the career of the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd , taking singer Ronnie Van Zant , guitarist Steve Gaines , and Gaines' back-up-singer sister Cassie Gaines. Soon after this discussion, Hood formed Drive-By Truckers. The Truckers recorded two studio albums and one live album during the four years between their formation and the actual recording of Southern Rock Opera.
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Search This Blog. Now, Ronnie Van Zant wasn't from Alabama, he was from Florida, he was a huge Neil Young fan but in the tradition of Merle Haggard writing Okie From Muskogee to tell his dad's point of view on the hippies in Vietnam, Ronnie felt that the other side of the story should be told. Neil Young always claimed that Sweet Home Alabama was one of his favorite songs and legend has it that he was an honorary pallbearer at Ronnie's funeral, such as the duality of the southern thing. So when the Bear would come to town, there would be a parade. Me, I was one of them pussy boys cause I hated football, so I got a guitar but a guitar was a poor substitute for a football with the girls in my high school. So my band hit the road, and we didn't play no Skynyrd, neither. I came of age rebelling against the music in my high school parking lot. It wasn't until years later after leaving the South for a while that I came to appreciate and understand the whole Skynyrd thing and its misunderstood glory.
We began writing the Southern Rock Opera some years ago. We wanted to examine people's misconceptions of the South, and study some modern-day southern mythology. The band Lynyrd Skynyrd's story seemed like the ultimate vehicle for tying all of these loose ends together into what would hopefully flow like one big story. It also gave us a great excuse for going with a 3 guitar lineup and exploring that musically. It should also be noted that the record was intentionally paced like a movie and was originally planned as a screenplay before it became an album. Set in the late s. Our hero is growing up in a small southern town and dreaming of being a big Rock Star. In the meantime he has to deal with the mundane shit that most teenagers deal with. As he grows up and leaves the south, he is shocked at how different people's perceptions of his home were from what he remembered. The first fatal carwreck of some peers in High School is unfortunately a near universal right of passage.