Fifty Years of Fiddlin' Around
Getting real with a musical legend.
By R.T. Byrum
Russell Palmer taught me to play the guitar. He had an old guitar and knew about two-and-a-half chords, so I said, ‘Teach me what you know.’ After that point, anybody we found that knew another chord we’d have them teach it to us. Once I learned a few chords, I figured that playing music was all I’d ever wanted to do, and so, after graduating from high school in 1955, I started a little bluegrass band. Then I learned to play the mandolin and the banjo and finally the fiddle.”
The rich country voice on the other end of the line, steeped in humor and served up with sincerity, was the voice of Charlie Daniels, a country music legend from head to toe: proud to be an American and proud to be a Christian.
The Long Road to the Top
In 1959, while on the way to California with a group called the Jaguars, Charlie and the group stopped in Texas to record and instrumental named after the band and produced by the legendary Bob Johnston. The number was picked up by the Epic label and distributed nationally. Charlie and Bob began a long association that included writing “It Hurts Me,” which Presley fans will recognize as the B-side of a 1964 hit. Bob encouraged Charlie to move to Nashville and use his talents to become a session guitarist. In 1969, Charlie did just that. He worked with Bob Dylan on his Nashville Skyline, New Morning and Self Portrait albums. During that same 1969-70 period, he also became the producer of the Youngbloods’ albums, Elephant Mountain and Ride the Wind. He toured Europe with Leonard Cohen and recorded with Al Kooper and Marty Robbins. Then came the breakthrough. In 1973, he took center microphone and recorded “Uneasy Rider.” During those early hippie and rebellious days the growing base of Charlie Daniels fans flocked to the music shop to buy his Long Haired Country Boy and The South’s Gonna Do It albums.
Three years later, Epic Records signed him to a reported $3 million contract, the largest ever given to a Nashville act up to that time. In 1979, Charlie recorded “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” and made history. The song vaulted to platinum, topped both country and pop charts and won a Grammy and two Country Music Association awards. “Devil” was the main Urban Cowboy movie soundtrack, and boosted Charlie’s Million Mile Reflections album to an astounding triple platinum sales level.
Country Stars Are Close to Real America
Christian Living wondered why, like Charlie, so many country stars boldly show their Christian and patriotic roots in their songs. Charlie—born Charles E. Daniels in Wilmington, North Carolina on October of 1936—believes that country stars by and large are like him in that they are closer to reality than some folks. “We’ll eat at a truck stop or speak to a waitress or to the carpenter working on our home. That’s the real America. Hollywood folks and politicians live in their own closed circle of ‘yes men.’ Whatever they say or think or do—it’s okay. If I had the chance I’d tell all of them how it is.” I asked Charlie, “If you had never become a musician, what do think your life’s work would have been?” “I’ve never been much of a ‘What ifer,” he said. “This is what I felt led to do, and I’ve never looked back.” How fortunate that’s been for the multitudes of fans that buy his records and crowd into stadiums to experience the Charlie Daniels Band live.
Charlie Daniels Honored with Two Cherished Awards
The list of honors and awards Charlie and his band have garnered fills more than a double- columned page of small print. Two major ones in the past few months were especially aimed at Charlie. After more than a half- century in the business of making music, Charlie was awarded the Country Radio Broadcasters Career Achievement Award. That tribute “is presented to an individual or act that, through their creativity, vision, performance or leadership has made a significant contribution to the development and promotion of country music and country radio.” Charlie joins such notable recipients as Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Alabama, Loretta Lynn, Ronnie Milsap, Reba McEntire, Sonny James, Chet Atkins, Eddy Arnold and Buck Owens. In addition, on January 19, 2008, a long time dream came true for the seventy-one-year-old superstar. Marty Stuart stepped up to the microphone on the Grand Ole Opry stage and announced, “The Opry is American, and its reach is universal—a steady force in the midst of passing trends. The Opry is Family. God Bless Charlie Daniels.” Responding after his induction into the world famous country music organization, Charlie, filled with emotion, said, “My Bible tells me God gives us the desires of our hearts, and tonight the promise has come true.” Marty Stuart, Connie Smith, Montgomery Gentry and Trace Adkins then joined Charlie on stage to regale the standing room crowd with “Will the Circle be Unbroken?”
One Disturbing Conflict
The Charlie Daniels Band characterizes its music as family friendly. Few have complained of his calling the devil an S.O.B. in “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” but a later version softened the words to “Son of a Gun.” Because of his beliefs, Charlie is disturbed by the use of that song in the wildly popular game, Guitar Hero. The performance is a very dark version that is far from the song’s original intent and was portrayed that way without approval by Charlie and his organization. As a Christian, Charlie is concerned about its effect on young players and hopes to resolve the conflict with the game’s creators.
Music for Everyone
Charlie, best known in country music circles, has played bluegrass, rock & roll, R & B, pop and jazz. When asked if his band had tried classical music, he said, “CDB’s opening theme is a classical number that I started writing, and then Chris Wormer, one of my guitarists, helped me finish. I don’t read or write music. It’s called... (Charlie tried to pronounce the classical sounding name but gave up, saying, “...or something like that.). Anyhow, it means, “Dangerous Night.” He followed his translation with his rumbling laugh. (The song is called “Notte Pericolosa.”) When asked why the band transitioned between such wide ranges of musical styles, he explained, “We really didn’t. My earliest recollection is of a small community radio station. They catered to housewives and cleaning ladies in the morning with one kind of music; at lunchtime the farmers were home and bluegrass and country were right for them; in the afternoons, they played pop for the kids coming in from school and at night they switched to big band sounds.”
Charlie Daniels Believes in Giving Back
Since 2003, Charlie has been a promoter of the education and prevention of what has been called the “Silent Epidemic” of youth suicide. The Jason Foundation, Inc. (JFI) is made available to young people, educators, parents and community members at no cost. Charlie is one of the valued ambassadors of the fifty-five affiliate offices that are fighting to reduce the more than 100 suicide deaths that occur every week among youth in the United States. Charlie’s annual Volunteer Jam Concerts have become world famous musical extravaganzas that have been the template for many annual, day-long music marathons. The idea of bringing together current and heritage artists is considered by many as Charlie’s most impressive contribution to Southern music.
2007 Release of Charlie’s New CD, Deuces
The band’s newest CD, entitled The Charlie Daniels Band Deuces, pairs Charlie with thirteen country stars like Dolly Parton, Travis Tritt, Brenda Lee and Marty Stuart in renditions of classics including: “What’d I Say?” “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” When asked about the white suit he’s wearing on the CD label, Charlie said he’d only worn it twice. “Putting me in a white suit is like sending me through a dust storm with an ice cream cone.” That’s pure Charlie. The fans love whatever Charlie and his group are doing, so it appears that Marty Stuart’s prayer for God to bless Charlie Daniels is being answered in positive ways. When asked what he plans to do with the next fifty years, Charlie responded with a typical down-home answer, “Well, everything’s worked out pretty good so far, so I’ll just keep on doing it.”
When at home in Lebanon, Tennessee, Charlie and his wife, Hazel, attend church at World Outreach with Pastor Allen Jackson.
To learn more about Charlie Daniels and his band and organization, please log on to www.charliedaniels.com
