Customer Reviews

Southern Rock Review

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

... the lack of a Confederate flag on the front cover. The reason for this is that the author, Martin Popoff, is from Canada -- that makes the whole country "South" for him. ....

As for the book itself, it's the only one I know of that takes Southern rock seriously as a movement--and it doesn't quiver at doling out harsh truths as well, such as the self-parody of the recent Skynyrd output. Actually, I would have liked Popoff to have expanded his definition a bit (he did include an "If You Like Southern, You Might Like..." section in the appendix, which included all the bands that I wish he'd have fully included) but it was also brave to actually hold himself to the geography and include only bands that came from the South itself. Gutsy and idiosyncratic as Popoff always is, his writing reaches beautiful heights when speaking about the first solo Dickey Betts album, a gentle, delicate, unassuming work that reeks genius. Eat a peach, indeed. And buy this book.

SOUTHERN ROCK REVIEW
Martin Popoff (Collector's Guide Publishing)
The extremely knowledgeable Martin Popoff is back to blow our minds yet again with his encyclopedic knowledge of... southern rock? A new twist from the man who brought us the most important piece of literature in metal, The Collector's Guide To Heavy Metal, as well as no less than two other books on metal, and current Senior Editor of Brave Words And Bloody Knuckles. But, southern rock? Here's why you should care; some of this stuff is actually heavy (Blackfoot, Molly Hatchet), a lot of these good ol' bands utilized a three guitar attack way before Maiden (even though it always sounds like one guitar, an idea Maiden also put to use) and for those into the New Orleans sound (Soilent Green, EYEHATEGOD, Down, some Pantera, some Crowbar), this is where it all began. I know it's hard to believe that an album with a cover of an extreme close-up of some hick's mustache (this book is chock full of `em) could have influenced Acid Bath, but it all makes sense. Nice touch with having album cover shots in here (hopefully an idea that will show up in the next metal review book), and southern rock album covers are almost as ridiculous as metal album covers (just with more members per band, more mustaches, less violence and less demons) so it adds a comical touch to the proceedings. As always, Popoff writes with hilarious amounts of knowledge and personality. His style of writing is his own, eschewing conventional grammar and sentence structure ("I've toned down" he says in the intro; yeah right) for another unique reading experience. My experience in the genre at hand is limited to the basics, and Southern Rock Review is a great help to getting my feet in the swamps to check out some more, with Canada's finest music journalist guiding the tour. Downers: typos galore and the included ten-track compilation CD features two bands not even included in the book (it doesn't cover prog or disco/funk crud, so why have it on the CD?) and a few of the song choices are a bit too obvious.
Greg Pratt

This is an excellent review guide of Southern Rock Albums. It's all there from A to Z, in alphabetical order by band name,and then album by album, making it very easy to look up album reviews about any particular Southern Rock Band, or Artist. The book is packed with photos of Southern Rock album covers. The author, rates every album on a scale of 1 - 10.

This book was copyrighted around 2001, so it only contains the Southern Rock Bands, up until that point. There have been some other Southern Rock Bands to emerge since then, and also there have been many new Southern Rock albums released since then. Also, the author, Martin Popoff, admits that he did miss a few, that should have been included. One of the main criteria he used to select bands is that they must actually be from 14 southern states, which includes the states that were in the Confederacy, the border states, & Oklahoma. He also discusses some other criteria he used his classification of Southern Rock.

The book contains album reviews on the more popular Southern Rock bands, such as The Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Charlie Daniels Band, Wet Willie, and others. Plus, it also contains dozens & dozens of lesser known southern rock bands, along with reviews of their albums. It's packed full of illustrations of Southern Rock album covers.

I'm not sure where the author Martin Popoff got all this information, but he sure did an excellent job. He does list a bibliography & some Southern Rock Artists that he interviewed, such as Donnie & Johnny Van Zant, the late Jakson Spires (of Blackfoot) and others.

The book contains two appendixes as follows:

Appendix I - "Southern-ish" - This is a list of bands that did not meet his criteria for being classified as Southern Rock Bands, however, they are very, very similar in the style of music that they play. Some of these bands include: Alabama, Gram Parsons, Creedence Clearwater Revival,
New Riders of the Purple Sage, Little Feat, and many, many others.

Appendix II - This is a list of the authors top 122 Southern Rock Albums. He rated them on a scale of 1 - 10, and he has a list of 17 10's, 24 9's, and 81 8's. Also, throughout the book he rates the southern rock albums on a scale from 1 - 10.

The book contains an index of the many, many Southern Rock album cover photos in the book. Plus, there's an index in alphabetical order by band name.

This is an excellent reference book on Southern Rock for Southern Rock Fans, and I certainly am one. It's a very handy-dandy (Go Jim Dandy!!!) reference guide. I love Southern Rock, and I love this book, therefore, I highly recommend it. Buy it, see it, you'll love it also. Thanks!!!!

In the 1970s Southern bands were at the top of rock music. Martin Popoff's Southern Rock Review rates hundreds of southern rock albums and gives each a score from zero to ten. Popoff has strong opinions and his book is a great argument starter for fans.

To Popoff, the "true" southern-rock era was from the late-1960s to the early-1980s. Most of the albums that he reviews come from those years. Hard-core fans will enjoy Popoff's reviews of "lost bands" - talented groups that never quite made it.

Popoff prefers blue-sy, hard rock music. Therefore, he likes the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Molly Hatchet, and Blackfoot. He is tougher on pop bands, such as .38 Special and (especially) the Atlanta Rhythm Section.

The book offers many extras. At the end, there is a page that lists the albums that Popoff rated as 8's, 9's, and 10's. Also, there is a separate index of "southern-ish" bands - those that sound close to southern rock, but didn't make the cut.

The book is supposed to include a bonus Southern rock CD, but I borrowed a library copy and the CD was long gone. The song list is quite good. But, some of the songs are by artists that Popoff does not review in the book (The Dixie Dregs and Steve Earle).

Popoff definitely needed an editor. There are many typos - such as "Duanne Allman," "Cooperhead Road," and a reference to "Sturgis, North Dakota."

Southern Rock Review is a unique book that offers fun, light reading. It isn't the sort of book that people will pick up and read cover to cover, but it's fun to thumb it on a lazy Sunday while listening to some old LPs.

Martin Popoff, a Canadian heavy metal critic, proves that he is just as good at writing about Southern rock with this book. It was heartening to see him give at least a middling rating to the Allman Brothers' 80s albums, as well as to see him give all of the Outlaws' classic albums ratings of 5 or higher. This proves that, despite his witty writing style, he doesn't put records down without giving them a fair listen.

Hello just thought I'd give the 10 tracks on the CD sampler:

1. THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND - RAMBLIN' MAN
2. LYNYRD SKYNRYD - SWEET HOME ALABAMA
3. ATLANTA RHYTHM SECTION - SO INTO YOU
4. DUANE ALLMAN - GOIN' DOWN SLOW
5. WET WILLIE - KEEP ON SMILIN'
6. HYDRA - LAND OF MONEY
7. DIXIE DREGS - NIGHT OF THE LIVING DREGS
8. SEA LEVEL - TEAR DOWN THIS WALL
9. STEVE EARLE - COPPERHEAD ROAD
10. ELVIN BISHOP - FOOLED AROUND AND FELL IN LOVE

- After reading the book and listening to the CD sampler, I realized I like Southern Metal (ie., Molly Hatchet & Blackfoot). Although the book is a good reference for the (much) less heavier bands in the genre.