Charlie's soapbox: Different Strokes

Click here to read Charlie's own account of the stroke he suffered on January 15th:

http://www.charliedanielssoapbox.com/view_topic.php?id=8835&forum_id=4

Not good news: Charlie suffers stroke

Despite the condition, the country legend will not cancel any shows.
John Hall
Charlie Daniels suffered a mild stroke this past Friday while snowboarding* in Colorado. The country music star noticed his left hand getting numb after getting off his snowmobile. When the left side of his face began growing numb as well, he quickly descended the mountain to check into Mercy Regional Medical Center in Durango.

By the time Daniels had checked in to Mercy Regional, he had lost so much coordination he had to be escorted in by wheelchair.

After initial treatments to loosen the blood clot, Daniels was airlifted to the Swedish Medical Center in Denver where tests confirmed that he had a stroke. He was released last Sunday.

Daniels, moved by the incident, recommended afterward that anyone believing they might be experiencing a stroke not procrastinate. "You only have three hours from the time you feel a stroke coming on," said Daniels. "Don't play with your life, get help."


*Note: He was snowmobiling.
from celebritycafe.com

Does Charlie Daniels Play a Mean Fiddle?

The new Charlie Daniels Gieco commercial is now available on youtube, in case you've missed it on ESPN...Check it out here!

Christmas is coming early this year!

From CharlieDaniels.com

CHARLIE DANIELS RELEASES A CHRISTMAS BLUEGRASS CD/DVD
Charlie Daniels will release a new Christmas cd/dvd in mid-October on Blue Hat/Koch Records. The collection of Christmas standards features guest performances by . Jewel, The Grascals, Aaron Tippin, Kathy Mattea, and more. Songs include O Come All Ye Faithful, Joy To The World, The Christmas Song and Silent Night.

Tiger Woods names baby after Charlie

Tiger and Elin Woods welcomed their second child into the world Sunday night. Charlie Axel Woods joins sister Sam Alexis into the Woods fold. Everyone knows Tiger has been playing the fiddle since he was 4-months-old and idolizes Charlie Daniels.


From the Golf channel.

Lynyrd Skynyrd Keyboardist Billy Powell Dead at 56

The piano player for the southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd has died at his northeast Florida home.

Keyboard player Billy Powell called 911 about 12:55 a.m. Wednesday saying he was having trouble breathing. Rescue crews performed CPR, but he was pronounced dead at 1:52 a.m., said Orange Park Police Lt. Mark Cornett.

Powell, 56, who has a history of heart problems, missed a Tuesday appointment with his doctor for a cardiac evaluation. A heart attack is suspected. No autopsy will be performed because Powell's cardiologist will sign the death certificate, Cornett said.

The Jacksonville-based band was formed in 1966 by a group of high school students — famously, it took its name from a P.E. teacher they disliked, Leonard Skinner. Powell joined the group around 1972, the year before they released their first album, "Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd."

It became one of the South's most popular rock groups, and gained national fame with such hits as "Free Bird," "What's Your Name" and especially "Sweet Home Alabama," which reached the top 10 on the national charts in 1974.

The band was decimated on Oct. 20, 1977, when their chartered plane crashed in a swamp near McComb, Miss.

Six people were killed — lead singer Ronnie Van Zant; guitarist Steve Gaines; and his sister, vocalist Cassie Gaines; as well as an assistant road manager, the pilot and co-pilot.
Powell was one of the survivors.

Two years after the accident, Powell and fellow members Allen Collins, Gary Rossington and Leon Wilkeson formed the Rossington-Collins Band. It broke up in 1982.

Powell was on hand again in 1991 when a revived version of the band put out a new album, "Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991" and launched a tour in Baton Rouge, La., where the band was headed in 1977 when the plane crashed. Fans who kept their tickets from the canceled 1977 concert were admitted free.

The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.

New Charlie DVD coming soon!

Charlie Daniels plans DVD release
Friday, September 26, 2008 – Charlie Daniels will release a live concert DVD package "Preachin', Prayin', Singin' with Charlie Daniels & Friends: Live From Nashville," Koch Records on Nov. 11.
Daniels performed in Nashville in 2005 to debut songs from his Grammy-nominated bluegrass-gospel album "Songs From the LongLeaf Pines." Daniels surprised his Country Music Hall of Fame audience by inviting several of his personal bluegrass heroes up on the Ford Theater stage to jam. Guest pickers included Mac Wiseman, members of the Scruggs family (Earl, Gary and Randy) and McCoury family (Del, Ronnie and Rob) as well as singers Sharon, Cheryl and Buck White.
The DVD features commentary from Daniels as he reflects back on the early days of The Charlie Daniels Band, playing with The Earl Scruggs Review in the late '60s and the music of close friend Wiseman.
Other features include intimate interviews and behind-the-scenes conversations with Daniels, Scruggs, Wiseman and others who participated.

Don't fiddle with Daniels' pride

Don't fiddle with Daniels' pride | Cincinnati Enquirer | Cincinnati.Com:

"Don't fiddle with Daniels' pride
Concert preview

By Chris Varias • chrisvarias@gmail.com • July 4, 2008
Comments Read Comments(1) • Recommend • Print Print • Email Email • Click To Listen Click To Listen • Type Size: A A

With his snow-white beard and healthy frame, Charlie Daniels could be mistaken for Kris Kringle if he wore the red-velvet get-up. But the jolly old fiddler, who became a country-rock superstar with the 1979 crossover hit 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia,' is more of an Uncle Sam type of guy.
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Daniels says he doesn't mind working on Independence Day, when his Volunteer Jam traveling show with .38 Special and Shooter Jennings rolls in to Blue Ash.

'The Fourth of July has always evoked some thoughts, if you take the time to do it. I wonder sometimes if some people even know what it is and what it means. It's a day that we declared our independence and became one nation under God of free people. It's the day when the American dream was born. I am thankful to the people who fought and died and shed blood to protect our rights.'

Daniels talked about some recent events in his career, including his most recent album of duets with the likes of Brad Paisley (coming to Riverbend next Friday), Dolly Parton and Darius Rucker, and his induction to the Grand Ole Opry.

Question: On your latest record, "Deuces," there's a couple of tunes written by Bob Dylan, whom you did session work for on records like "Nashville Skyline" and "New Morning." He's somebody who started as a protest singer, but now he steers clear of the finger-pointing songs. On the other hand, you don't shy away from mixing politics and music. Do you have any thoughts on the different approaches?

Answer: One time we did a song called "Three Angels," and we were sitting there listening to the playback, and Dylan said, "I wrote that about three angels they put on a church across the street from where I was living, and they lit them up at Christmastime." When the album came out, some guy wrote this thing about Dylan's insight into humanity with the three angels and all this stuff, and I thought, "Man, he wrote it about Christmas decorations." That's the point about Dylan, with somebody like that who's so unique with words, you don't really know. Of course some of the stuff was protest stuff. He was kind of the father of it, the intellectual side of it anyway. My stuff, I don't look at it as political. I just look at it as being patriotic, as far as "In America" or "This Ain't No Rag, It's a Flag."

Q: You have some bluegrass players on your latest CD. I've never thought of you as a bluegrass musician, even though you're country music's most famous fiddler. Where does bluegrass figure into what you do?

A: It's the first music I ever played. I was a bluegrasser before anything else. Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs were on the radio at the time in Raleigh, N.C., and we just idolized them. We couldn't be the Foggy Mountain Boys (the name of Flatt and Scruggs' band), so we were the Misty Mountain Boys. I cut my teeth on bluegrass.

Q: Why did you get out of bluegrass?

A: I got fascinated about the time rock started happening with Elvis and Carl Perkins, where someone who played guitar could now play rock music. The first rock song I ever did was "Tutti Frutti." I'd go to fiddler conventions and sing it with a bluegrass band. I started heading in that direction. I got an electric guitar and here we went.

Q: What did it mean to you to be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry?

A: It's absolutely wonderful. They've always been good to us. We could always go to the Opry and play when we were in town. But it's not the same. It creates a different feeling (to be inducted). I've been an admirer of the Opry for so long. It's the first radio show I can remember listening to as a kid. It's kind of hard to articulate, but suffice it to say it's a tremendous honor.