Fire on the Mountain
Musician extraordinaire Charlie Daniels is best known for his foot stomping fiddle-fest, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," but those who want to see the true progression of his work should check out his earlier work, particularlyFire on the Mountain. Alternately opinionated and tender, a balladeer as well as a hoe-down ring leader, Daniels effortlessly merged a variety of genres into his sound, and at the center of it all was his fiddle. His bad-ass anthem, "The South's Gonna Do It Again," was a live favorite, and in it Daniels's pride in his homeland stops just short of waving the Confederate flag. Its studio counterpart loses none of its energy.  "Long Haired Country Boy" also displays Daniels's storytelling finesse and his "don't tread on me" attitude, and neither "Trudy" nor "King Size Rosewood Bed" have lost any of their appeal over time. --Steve Gdula