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Southern spin on rock on the rise

The genre will be featured during concerts by the Marshall Tucker Band in September and Gretchen Wilson in December.

By JORGE SANCHEZ
Published July 24, 2006

Two upcoming concerts will showcase Southern rock, which is in the midst of a musical comeback.

The Marshall Tucker Band will perform Sept. 22 at the Citrus County Speedway in Inverness, with special guest the Artimus Pyle Band.

That concert will be followed in December by Gretchen Wilson, whose music blends country and Southern rock. Wilson is known for her chart-toppers I'm Just Here for the Party and Redneck Woman.

The Marshall Tucker Band, which helped make Southern rock a musical genre, will feature founding member and lead singer Doug Gray. Original guitarist Toy Caldwell, and his brother, bassist Tommy Caldwell, are both deceased.

Another veteran Marshall Tucker Band member still with the group is David Muse, who is credited with making the flute a "cool" rock music instrument. Muse was a founding member of Firefall, and his flute can be heard in many of its songs as well.

The Marshall Tucker Band is known for Can't You See, Fire on the Mountain and Take the Highway. The South Carolina band's first self-titled LP was released in 1973.

Another veteran Southern rocker, Artimus Pyle, fronts his own band that plays a little bit of its own music and that of another band that Pyle was a drummer for: Lynyrd Skynyrd.

He joined the band in 1974 as its second drummer. Pyle survived the plane crash that killed four band members in 1977 and waded through a swamp to get help for the survivors.

For his efforts, he was shot by a shotgun-wielding farmer who was terrified by Pyle's bedraggled and bloody appearance and mistook him for a swamp monster. He survived that horrific day and is still playing the drums with fervor.

He was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in March, along with many of the original and surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

The band will be playing Skynyrd classics such as Sweet Home Alabama and Free Bird. Bring your lighters to flick and wave on that second tune.

Tickets for the Marshall Tucker and Artimus Pyle show are $10 for the grandstand sets, $15 for infield seats and $25 for VIP. They are available at SunTrust Banks. Johnny Maddox and the Fantasy Band is also on the list to perform.

Some of the show's proceeds will be donated to help buy automatic external defibrillators for Citrus County sheriff's patrol cars. The devices, known as AEDs, are used to resuscitate people whose hearts have stopped beating. Visit the concert's Web site at www.walkerfest.org.

The Citrus County Speedway is at the county fairgrounds on U.S. 41 S in Inverness, near the airport.

The Gretchen Wilson concert will be Dec. 9 at Rock Crusher Canyon Amphitheater in Crystal River. It is an outdoors venue with no fixed seats or bleachers, so bring your own lawn chairs or blankets. The VIP section in front of the stage features plastic seats.

Special guests are Blake Shelton, the Swanson Family Bluegrass Band and Cason. Advance reserved tickets are $45. Call 527-3297 for ticket information.

Jorge Sanchez covers arts and entertainment in Citrus County. He can be reached at sanchez@sptimes.com or 860-7313.

[Last modified July 23, 2006, 22:41:52]