Southern Rock Review (Paperback)

by Martin Popoff (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
From The Allman Brothers to ZZ Top, from Florida to Texas, this is Soutern Rock's rich recorded heritage reviewed in one handy reference guide, each album rated on a scale of 1 to 10, each review stuffed to the brim with biographical information. As well, check out Martin's list of the top 122 greatest Southern Rock albums of all time!

Also included, approximately 150 photos of Southern Rock album covers, including many rare, out-of-print titles!

Good ol' boys along for the ride include:

The Black Crowes, Blackfoot, Black Oak Arkansas, Cowboy, The Charlie Daniels Band, Doc Holliday, Georgia Satellites, Gov't Mule, Grinderswitch, Jackyl, Johnny Jenkins, Mama's Pride, Mother's Finest, Nitzinger, Don Nix, The Outlaws, Henry Paul Band, Point Blank, Potliquor, Rossington Collins Band, Stillwater, 38 Special, Van Zant, Bobby Whitlock, ZZ Top, and more . . .

This book comes with a Bonus CD featuring the Southern Rock hits: Allman Brothers (Ramblin' Man), Duane Allman (Goin'Down Slow), Atlanta Rhythm Section (So Into You), Elvin Bishop (Fooled Around And Fell In Love), Dixie Dregs (Night Of The Living Dregs), Steve Earle (Copperhead Road), Hydra (Land Of Money), Lynard Skynard (Sweet Home Alabama), Sea Level (Tear Down This Wall), and Wet Willie (Keep On Smillin').

About the Author

Martin Popoff is a freelance music journalist and the author of several books on pop culture, including Riff Kills Man. His articles have appeared in numerous publications and web sites, among them Chart, Guitar World, Lolipop, Goldmine, and HMV.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Collector's Guide Publishing Inc (August 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1896522734
• ISBN-13: 978-1896522739
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,019,619 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Like Smooth Jack Daniels, Southern & Satisfying, September 10, 2002

By	JASON FARRELL (SHEBOYGAN, WI United States) - See all my reviews

... 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.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Metal guru goes redneck?, September 24, 2001

By	Greg Pratt (Victoria, BC Canada) - See all my reviews

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

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ultimate Album Review Guide of Southern Rock - In Alphabetical Order From the Allman Brothers to ZZ Top !!!!!!!!, May 15, 2009

By	Gary Covington "Southern Rocker" (LA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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!!!!