Note: Hello my friends, for three days this blog will cover concert films featuring country music and rock and roll icon, Charlie Daniels. Charlie recently passed away suddenly from a stroke. Though Charlie recorded many studio albums (most as part of The Charlie Daniels Band), what he enjoyed the most about his career was being on stage entertaining audiences. That is why these films are so important now that he is no longer around to do concerts. Films last forever and so through these movies we will forever be able to enjoy the man doing what he did best..The Charlie Daniels Band is best known today as the band that did The Devil Went Down to Georgia. However the band had a lot going on before that song was ever released. Luckily for us, the excitement of the band’s earlier days is captured in a fantastic concert film. Still this great movie seems to hardly get a notice, even from the band’s fans.
One of the most exciting parts of the band’s career were the Volunteer Jam concerts. These concerts showed just what the band was and is still all about, this is of course great music. The band never cared if their music was country, rock, blues, bluegrass or whatever. If it was good it had a place in the band’s repertoire. Along with performing some of themselves in these concerts, the band always had special guests. Causing much of the excitement is the audience never knew who the guests were going to be. Over the years the Volunteer Jams would have such legends as Roy Acuff, Carl Perkins, Lynyrd Skynyrd. Kris Kristofferson, Wet Willie, Bobby Bare. James Brown, Stevie Ray Vaughan, B.B. King, Emmylou Harris, John Prine, Trace Adkins and The Allman Brothers Band. The first of these concerts lead to the live tracks from their Fire on the Mountain album. This was by far the band’s most successful album at this time featuring two big hits, The South’s Gonna Do it Again and Long Haired Country Boy. The album even went gold. After this success it was decided that the second Volunteer Jam would be filmed and released to theaters. The concert took place at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro Tennessee and featured as special guests, The Marshall Tucker Band, Dickey Betts and Chuck Leavell from the Allman Brothers, Roni Stoneman (Yes that incredible female banjo player from Hee Haw), Jimmy Hall from Wet Willie and Dru Lombar from Grinderswitch. It was released in theaters in 1976, then disappeared until a 2007 DVD version.
This movie was advertised as “The First Full-Length Southern Rock Motion Picture” and it might surprise those who only know the country side of the band, just how much of a rock and roll movie this is. No Place Left to Go features an extended instrumental jam that is pure guitar rock at its best. The movie also features The Charlie Daniels Band performing such pure rock and roll songs as Funky Junky, Birmingham Blues and Whiskey. All of those songs are pure originals and remind anyone who underestimates CDB, that these are incredible musicians. Of course there is also rock and roll when The Marshall Tucker Band performs Twenty Four Hours (With Charlie joining them on fiddle). The majority of the performers get together to perform some rock and roll later in the film. No need for Country music fans to worry though, The Charlie Daniels Band does do some pure country songs here, from their own Long Haired Country Boy, The South’s Gonna Do it Again and Texas, to such classic country songs as Orange Blossom Special and Mountain Dew (which includes some great banjo picking from Roni Stoneman). Whether you like Country, Rock or Blues, this movie gives you Southern music at its finest. Cinematically this is a very simplistic film. Most of the filming is invisible calling little to no attention to itself, just shooting the performers strait on. However the focus is on the music and the music is amazing.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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