Charlie Daniels Band – The Roots Remain / The Outlaws – Best Of…Green Grass & High Tides

Southern rock today is just brushed off as another unfortunate by-product of the ’70s, not much different than leisure suits, gas shortages or Houston Astros uniforms. There were endless jams, guitar armies, double drummers, and namecheck songs of fellow travelers. But that was the down side. The up side was the intermingling and exploration of blues, country and rock by folks who grew up influenced by them all. Among those folks were the Charlie Daniels Band of North Carolina and the Outlaws of Tampa, Florida.

The first disc of the three-disc set from fiddler and bandleader Daniels covers his creative peak but squanders the opportunity to showcase some hidden gems. A large portion is devoted to the fine songs from Fire On the Mountain (“Caballo Diablo”, “Trudy”, “Long Haired Country Boy”) and Saddle Tramp (“Wichita Jail”, “Sweet Louisiana”, “Saddle Tramp”), but a second Allmans-style jamathon (“No Place To Go”) and a somewhat pointless poem that ties into the set’s title are included at the expense of many of the early gems (“Franklin Limestone”) and a number of albums altogether (Way Down Yonder; TeJohn, Grease and Wolfman).

The second disc tracks the transition from Capricorn Studios in Macon, Georgia, to Nashville. This period marked Daniels’ rise to massive popularity and his gradual evolution as a libertarian, but was perhaps the weakest point of his overall body of work artistically (featuring such disappointments as Million Mile Reflections, Full Moon and Windows). Most of the songs have that bloated feeling many albums succumbed to in the day, careening around the negative aspects of both country and Southern rock, from third-rate boogie (“Legend Of Wooly Swamp”) to simplistic jingoism (“In America”) to overblown arrangements a la Urban Cowboy (take your pick).

The final disc rebounds nicely, offering some pleasant, if unremarkable, country music. While not as dynamic as he was during his mid-’70s heyday, Daniels does in fact return to the roots of his early records on Kama Sutra and his sessions in Nashville some 30 years ago (including his work on Dylan’s Nashville Skyline.)

Packaged in a snazzy leather binding, the set has a subpar discography, though the recording information is adequate. Probably because of pricing considerations, the collection was restricted to three discs, which suffices as a greatest-hits collection but fails to show the true depth of Daniels’ talent.

The Outlaws, on the other hand, have pieced together a new greatest hits disc to replace their pre-CD-era best-of package. With most of the tracks culled from the first two records, the focus is on the Outlaws’ trademark: country rock with a heavy dose of bluegrass pickin’ and the high lonesome harmonies of Hughie Thomasson, Billy Jones and Henry Paul (who left after two records to reproduce the Outlaws’ sound in the Henry Paul Band and is currently a member of Blackhawk). Fine originals, choice covers (“Freeborn Man”, “Girl From Ohio”) and a classic instrumental (“Waterhole”) are found throughout, with almost no fat on this cut of fine Southern bred beef.