Yes, Diablo Canyon. Love that song too. I 4got that Rossington is on it! Had to go look at the CD, you are correct. Billy Powell is as well. They both play on the same two songs. I am drawing a blank on what those songs are like, will leave the CD out & give it a spin to refresh my memory in a couple of days. That hits on a cool idea, I wonder how many Outlaws albums/songs any Skynyrd guys play on, and vice versa. Other than these two I have no idea actually. Those bands & 38 Special have some things in common, they all probably guested at one time or another on something the others did (?).
The Skynyrd boys are on Macon Blues and Brother Travis, if memory serves. Both highly decent tunes. Gary plays the excellent slide solo on the former and some lead on the latter. Billy takes the piano parts on both.
I finally got around to listening to Henry Paul's last album for Atlantic Records. It's the self-titled one. I remember seeing it in the cut-out bins in the 80's but kept waiting for the price to go down. Picked up a sealed cassette a few years back. Opened it this morning and played the 1st side as I went to bed. Not bad at all but not very "Southern Rock" either. Very much a mainstream early 80's AOR sound. I imagine I wouldn't have cared as much for it as I did today had I bought it in the 80's. I was surprised to see that Hughie contributed a guitar solo on the last track on side 2. I'll have to give side 2 a listen. Anybody else have any thoughts on this album?
I think you've summed it up very well. Not Southern rock at all but it's definitely a terrific AOR album. Tragedy and Cold War are probably the highlights but it's all good. Nice to hear Hughie Thomasson on the latter! Speaking of the Henry Paul Band, I've recently discovered the band Ghost Riders, featuring their original keyboardist Barry Rapp along with current Outlaws guitar player, Steve Grisham. Despite their hokey name, they're really good. Five albums between 2003 and 2013 and all highly decent Southern rock efforts. Not sure if they are still extant since SG has gone back to The Outlaws, but definitely worth looking up.
at the time I wasn't really into that sound Henry was putting out. It's not bad, but I prefer the SR Henry.
I think that's why I held off buying it for so long. I assumed (correctly) that he had moved away from the Southern Rock sound. Kind of like when Johnny Van Zant put out "Brickyard Road". Loved the title track but the rest of the album was pretty forgettable mainstream AOR.
Been listening to a lot of Henry Paul recently. Been enjoying both his own band and Blackhawk. Dixie Highway is still getting a lot of spins too.
Marvellous album. He moved away slowly from the Southern rock sound after that although some of the later Blackhawk albums bring it back in small doses.
Not looking to hijack this Outlaws thread but this band (The Steel Woods) might appeal to fellow Outlaws fans. I got turned onto them through another thread on Southern rock bands (think it was the Blackberry Smoke thread) and am liking their albums, they remind me very much of The Outlaws but minus the full guitar army of course. The lead singer's voice has a dusty Hughie vibe to it which I like a lot. They only have two albums out so far with another on the way in a few months and oddly they even cover a Black Sabbath song on each of the two albums I have so far (shocked the heck out of me to hear Hole In the Sky done Southern rock style, did not realize it was the Sab song until it started playing). One of their songs - unknown if intentional or just a coincidence - sounds to me like a carbon copy of Skynyrd's Was I Right Or Wrong melody in the verses btw (but the rest of the song is totally different): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl3Dac3JgUs Sadly, one of their founder members (guitarist Jason Cope) died earlier this year.
Great band, The Steel Woods. New album, All Of Your Stones, due out later this month. Didn't know that Jason Cope had died. That's terribly sad. He couldn't have been very old. Forty maybe?
Yes, pretty young. Am not sure of his age. I think there is a thread up here about him but I haven't read it. I think wikipedia mentioned they did not have a cause of death yet and it happened in January this year (?).
Wasn't aware of The Steel Woods, thanks for mentioning. With the two Telecasters, it sounds instrumentally a lot like The Outlaws covering Sabbath. May is always the month that I get back in touch with my southern rock roots/will start with the great radio concert from the 1979 Playin' To Win tour:
Other than that I wasn't crazy about Hurry Sundown as the opening number, it's an excellent concert and the unfairly maligned Freddie Salem helps bring a stronger edge to their guitar-army live sound. Enjoy!
Cheers. Will do! Even though I'm a massive Henry Paul fan, I like Freddie Salem's contributions to the band. His album with The Wildcats, Cat Dance is an enjoyable listen too.
