Charlie Daniels

Charles Edward "Charlie" Daniels ( born October 28, 1936 in Wilmington, North Carolina) is an American country musician. His biggest hit is the Grammy -winning song The Devil Went Down to Georgia from the year 1979.

Life

In his youth, Daniels played fiddle and guitar in various bands. At 21 he decided to become a professional musician and played in a rock band that called itself Jaguars. The band was not very well known, but managed a record with producer Bob Johnston to take a later head of Columbia Records. His first success was his song It Hurts Me, which was published in 1964 as a B- side of a single by Elvis Presley.

In the late 1960s, Charlie Daniels went to Nashville to work as a studio musician. He played on various albums by Bob Dylan Nashville Skyline as, Self Portrait and New Morning, he also became a member of Leonard Cohen's live band.

The 70s

Daniels, who throughout his life very strongly identified with the American South and their conservative values ​​, but was also influenced by the culture of the hippies felt to the resultant from 1969 genre of Southern Rock attracted to their most recognized protagonists he shared with the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd should be. In 1970 he recorded his first solo album, Charlie Daniels, on.

In 1972 he founded the Charlie Daniels Band. Daniels played lead guitar, violin and sang. With the band were Don Murray ( guitar), bassist Charlie Hayward and drummer James W. Marshall, on keyboards Joe DiGregorio. 1973 the band had their first hit with the song Uneasy Rider from their second album Honey in the Rock (1972). In 1974 she published Fire on the Mountain with the hit Texas. The album entered the Top 40 and got gold status. A further hit for Daniels The South Is Gonna Do It Again, a hymn to the Southern Rock and the lifestyle of the southern states. In 1976, the album Saddle Tramp - even this record managed gold. During the 1970s, the Charlie Daniels Band one of the main protagonists of the Southern Rock was. In 1974 he organized the first of several Volunteer Jam concerts failing with Southern rock musicians.

In the late 1970s, when Southern rock lost popularity, the music of the band turned more and more towards the country, the violin was Daniel's trademark. It also determines Daniels ' biggest hit, The Devil Went Down to Georgia ( 1979). The song reached No. 1 on the country charts and # 3 on the pop charts. From the Country Music Association (CMA ), the song was nominated for Single of the Year. The follow-up album Million Mile Reflections has been awarded several platinum.

From the 80s

The success of The Devil Went Down to Georgia by Charlie Daniels was never reached again, even if the band had several other hit singles such as In America, Long Haired Country Boy, Still in Saigon and The Legend of Wooley Swamp. The plates Full Moon and Windows (1980 and 1982 ) received gold and platinum awards. The commercial success of Daniels took off. Only in 1989 the band Simple Man had a Goldhit again. In the 1990s it became quiet around Daniel, because he did not fit with its traditionally shaped, angular music in the mass market. He lost his record label and founded his own on which he continued to be published regularly.

In January 2008, Daniels was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. Today Daniels lives in Mount Juliet in the U.S. state of Tennessee, in a park is named after its famous son. In January 2010, Daniels suffered a mild stroke while snowmobiling in Colorado.