Welcome to the New Home of GRITZ!!
Posted: Dec 10, 2006Hi friends, and welcome to the new home of Gritz on the web. I am extremely happy to announce the greatest merger to hit the South since Elvis met Col. Tom Parker, that of Gritz (featuring her illustrious founder, Michael Buffalo Smith) and Swampland Media, an absolutely amazing collective of folks who share the same love of the South, her music and culture, that I do.
I am ecstatic over the alliance that has been formed, and I want to thank Jim Markel, James Calemine, and all the other fine folks at Swampland for inviting me to the party. As most of you who read me on a regular basis know already, I started Gritz back in 1999 because I love to write. Mostly because I like to write about that music I am so passionate about. I’m talking about good ol’ down home, twin guitar fueled, whiskey soaked, eat a peach for peace, ramblin’ on my mind Southern Rock. Ain’t nothing like it.
Somewhere along the way, I got roped into running all of the business of the magazine, advertising, promotion, subscriptions, layout, writing most everything – you get the picture. Soon there was no time to create. I was a business man. Spooky.
Well kids, as we celebrate our 8th anniversary (in January), we are moving into a bright new positive relationship, a partnership that will not only free yours truly up to write about the music we all love, cover the most important Southern Rock and country events in the south and keep ya’ll in the loop on all the happenings from The Allman Brothers to Lynyrd Skynyrd, Shooter Jennings to Drive By Truckers and much more, but also bring Gritz into a whole new light, as a part of your “field guide to the South,” swampland.com. It’s gonna be great. I suggest you bookmark the website now, or better yet, make it your homepage. I just made it mine. Stay tuned for some amazing news, reviews, commentary and most of all, music.
Please bear with us as we move in. We still have a lot of boxes piled in the sun room, and my buddy Spike forgot to label several of them. In the coming weeks we will be archiving all of our very best interviews and features, all the while adding new material, news and commentary. As always, I appreciate you guys! Check back in tomorrow. I have to tell you about my week in Nashville and my visit to SIRIUS Radio. Stand by.
SOUTHERN ROCK FOREVER
Southern rock is so much deeper than the 12-song various artist CD you find at the checkout at the truck stop just off of I-40. It is a deep, rich tradition whose influences began with old Delta and Piedmont blues and country and western music. It was Elvis at Sun Studios, Jerry Lee Lewis ripping it up on piano, Hank Williams on the lost highway, and Buddy Holly’s “Peggy Sue.” Those were our roots.
Then in the 1970’s, all of that combined with a deep love of the British Invasion of the 1960’s to light a fire in the hearts and minds of Southern working class pickers like Charlie Daniels, who had been playing guitar on excellent albums by Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Ringo Starr when he caught wind of a new combo called The Allman Brothers Band that was making a major impact at Bill Graham’s Fillmore East and West and all across the country.
That spark of excitement ignited a passionate fire, creating a roots rock movement that brought Southern musician’s together in a way that had never before been seen. A true brotherhood was formed, and they called it Southern rock.
Southern rockers are good people. What I’d like to shout from the Blue Ridge mountain tops is this. The portrait of the Southern rocker as uneducated hillbilly hick is just plain wrong. Hollywood has it all wrong. This is the new south kids. This is the South we love. The South and it’s music you will read about on the GRITZ pages here at Swampland.
Pull out a record by Skynyrd and listen to Ronnie sing about how much he loved the South, his mama, fishing and playing his music. Read some of Charlie Daniels online blogs (charliedaniels.com) and listen to his songs. He’s all about faith, family and his love of our beloved country, especially the South, and particularly his beautiful Tennesssee home.
It’s a wonderful time to be a Southerner, and a bright new resurgence is taking place in the world of southern rock. I am proud to be a Southerner, and proud to be a part of the Swampland Media family.
Keep it Real. Keep it Southern!
Buffalo
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