March BEAT

SOUTHERN ROCK REARS IT'S HEAD IN AN ALL-STAR ONSLAUGHT

by Tom Lounges


     One thing you should never do, is to try to rope and hog-tie a good ol’
boy. Especially if he's carrying a big guitar.

    That’s the message conveyed by guitarist Dave Hlubek, the most colorful
and certainly most outspoken member of the Southern Rock All-Stars, who
single handedly are out to resurrect the "stars and bars" sound of Dixie-born
rock.

    Weary of being held back and told what to do my record label folks, the
Southern Rock All-Stars have chosen to forge a path of their own. Unlike
those who once dictated to them the way things would be, SRA are not driven
by hit singles, the bottom line and current trends, but rather by the love of
a music that the industry at large says is dead.

     Seems that the four members of SRA, who collectively earned millions of
dollars for “the suits” while with their previous gold and platinum selling
groups – Molly Hatchet, Blackfoot and The Rossington Band – got tired of
footing the bill for new summer homes and Aspen ski trips for record label
honchos.

     “Combined, we’ve had a part in selling more than 30 million albums,”
declared Hlubek, who co-founded Molly Hatchet, a hit-laden Jacksonville band
that many declared as the successor to the Southern Rock throne left empty
after Lynyrd Skynyrd's 1977 plane crash.

     “You get tired of working your butt off and seeing others get rich from
your efforts,” he added. In early 1998, Hlubek aligned himself with a few
other like-minded Southern rock veterans and adopted the kind of DIY attitude
that has proven successful for a bevy of punk and alternative bands.

    Helping the former Hatchet guitarist wave the SRA banner high and proud
are three fellow Floridians – drummer Jakson Spires (ex-Blackfoot), guitarist
Jay Johnson (ex-Rossington Band) and bassist Charles Hart (ex-Radio Toyko).
Together they have a rich songbook of past hits to tap into and more
importantly, they have begun creating a whole new body of hard rockin’
material.

    Last year, the quartet formed their own label and released their debut
CD, “Crazy Again.” It's an energetic disc rife with the kind of chunky
guitar riffs that made Southern Rock a monster genre back in the day. Their
sophomore recording is expected later this summer.

    The band’s new material is not just recycled Hatchet and Blackfoot.
Hlubek describes the songs as being “a natural progression” from what they
did in the past. Spires wrote or co-wrote 10 of the 11 tracks on “Crazy
Again.”   The remaining cut is a tasty cover of Thin Lizzy’s “Don’t Believe
A Word,” which will be included on a new Lizzy Tribute CD due out this summer
called, “The Spirit Of The Black Rose: A Tribute To Philip Parris Lynott.”

    “We’re just beside ourselves,” said Hlubek. “It’s real nice at this
point in our life where we can have a second shot at the brass ring and do it
on our own terms. We’re out here playing and having a good time. Our
audiences are like gravy and we’re just sopping ‘em up like a big old biscuit
.”

     A typical live SRA show includes many of the group's new songs, but
there are also plenty of old favorites from their former bands in the
repertoire.   Hlubek co-wrote some of Hatchet’s best numbers – “Gator
Country,” “Flirtin’ With Disaster” and “Beatin’ The Odds” – so you can
bet he is hell bent on playing them when he hits the stage with SRA.

      Southern rock was declared dead a few years back. Save for a few
classic anthems, radio today largely ignores the genre today. Even the
wetlands of Florida, where Southern rock began in the early 1970s, is now a
hot bed for the boy band craze.

    “I don’t believe it’s dead,” said Hlubek. “I know it’s not. What we’re
finding out with this band is that we're playing to the sons and daughters of
our original core fans, who are bringing them out to see us perform once
again. They like that this band is made up of original band members that
they thought they'd never see perform again. Southern rock may not be
mainstream anymore, but it's making a strong resurgence.”

       Jay Jackson first emerged in the public eye as the string-bender for
The Rossington Band, a Lynyrd Skynyrd spin off helmed by Skynyrd survivor,
Gary Rossington. Jackson co-wrote two of The Rossington Band’s best known
songs, “Losin’ Control” and “Returned To The Scene Of The Crime.”

     When Lynyrd Skynyrd did their reunion tour in 1987, Jackson was along
for the ride and was prominently featured in the concert film that
immortalized the landmark tour and kick-started the second phase of Skynyrd’s
career.

      Charles Hart co-founded Tokyo Rose with Johnson once Skynyrd regrouped
on a full time basis. Johnson later assembled The Dixie All-Stars, which
evolved into today’s Southern Rock All-Stars. Hart was brought into SRA full
time in 1999.
     Reverting to “road dog” status and having to play roadhouses juke
joints and night clubs after having tasted the good life as an arena rock
act, has not been a problem for the guys of SRA, according to Hlubek.

    “We’re not unaccustomed to getting out and pounding the pavement,” he
concluded. “We’ve all been doing it for a lot a years. I’m just glad to see
people are coming out like they have been for us. It’s nice to know that
they still want to hear us play, because we just ain’t planning to go away.”