Jacksonville and the Roots of Southern Rock - by Michael Ray Fitzgerald (Paperback)

About the Book

The Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd helped usher in a new kind of southern music from Jacksonville, Florida. Together, they and fellow bands like Blackfoot, 38 Special, and Molly Hatchett would reset the course of seventies rock. Michael FitzGerald tells the story of how the River City bred this generation of legendary musicians.

Book Synopsis

The enduring achievement and legacy of a rock movement

Florida Book Awards, Bronze Medal for Florida Nonfiction

The Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd helped usher in a new kind of southern music from Jacksonville, Florida. Together, they and fellow bands like Blackfoot, 38 Special, and Molly Hatchet would reset the course of seventies rock. Yet Jacksonville seemed an unlikely hotbed for a new musical movement.

Michael FitzGerald blends eyewitness detail with in-depth history to tell the story of how the River City bred this generation of legendary musicians. As he profiles essential bands alongside forerunners like Gram Parsons and Cowboy, FitzGerald reveals how the powerful local AM radio station worked with newspapers and television stations to nurture talent. Media attention in turn created a public hungry for live performances by area bands. What became the southern rock elite welded relentless determination to a ferocious work ethic, honing their gifts on a testing ground that brooked no weakness and took no prisoners.

FitzGerald looks at the music as the diverse soundtrack to a neo-southern lifestyle that reconciled different segments of society in Jacksonville, and across the nation, in the late sixties and early seventies. A vivid journey into a crucible of American music, Jacksonville and the Roots of Southern Rock shines a light on the artists and songs that powered a phenomenon.

Review Quotes

"Fun
and informative. . . . Fans of southern rock will appreciate Fitzgerald's
entertaining survey."--Publishers Weekly

"[An]
enjoyable book that's part memoir and part music history. . . . Offers
entertaining glimpses into the development of a music scene and music style."--No
Depression

"Extensively
researched and engagingly written, it's by far the most comprehensive account
of this aspect of Jacksonville history ever published."--The Jaxson

"Anyone with an interest in music history,
southern culture, or the bands included in this book will certainly enjoy what Jacksonville and the Roots of Southern Rock
has to offer."--Journal of Southern History


"Media historian Fitzgerald (Swamp Music) positions the north Florida port city of Jacksonville as the crossroads for southern rock in this fun and informative study. He writes that southern rock 'has no discernible sound or musical character; it can primarily be recognized by its subject matter, which has to do with the provincial men--and occasionally women--of the so-called heartland.' Fitzgerald smoothly weaves the stories of bands forming and at times moving on from Jacksonville (the Allman Brothers moved to Macon, Ga., to record at Capricorn Records, also the label for the Marshall Tucker Band). Many of these stories are familiar--the Allman Brothers history is well-known, for example--but Fitzgerald does introduce lesser-known artists such as Scott Boyer and Tommy Talton of Cowboy and keyboardist Reese Wynans, who played with bluesman John Mayall and country singer Trisha Yearwood. Along the way he digs into the origin of 'bad boys' Lynyrd Skynyrd, Blackfoot (whose singer, Rickey Medlocke, 'is one of the most talented singers to emerge from the city'), 38 Special (formed by Donnie Van Zant, the younger brother of Lynyrd Skynyrd singer Ronnie Van Zant), and Molly Hatchet (whom he labels 'Southern Spinal Tap'). Fans of southern rock will appreciate Fitzgerald's entertaining survey."--Publishers Weekly