Charlie Daniels

This 1979 Charlie Daniels album is proof that country funk existed. "Passing Lane" almost sounds like it was recorded in the same studio with the same session musicians as Stevie Wonder's Innervisions. In fact, a narrative hit like "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" comes off like a bumpkin anomaly next to these twang-boogie, urban cowboy rockers.

The adventurous journeyman having long since turned into a professional reactionary, he here offers nine nominally new ways to kick sh*t down an Interstate divider. Including a hit single lifted from Stephen Vincent Benet, rock and roll heaven south of the Mason-Dixon line, passing criticism of the Ku Klux Klan, and a sentimental reminiscence of "Mississippi," a state the adventurous journeyman fled in an uproar back when he didn't ride so easy. (Grade - C)