The Charlie Daniels Band

If you're a longtime fan of the CDB but have been out of touch with the performer for a while you might be surprised to know that the bearded southern rocker was 78-years-old when this show was taped in early 2015. Time flies but time also has been good to Daniels; even though he's not far from hitting the big eight-o this concert demonstrates that he hasn't lost so much as a beat when it comes to singing, guitar playing or wailing away on the fiddle. There's little doubt that Daniels could still kick the devil's pointy-tailed butt in a fiddle playing contest, and yes a raucous version of big hit "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" is featured here and saved for the show's finale. Among the 13 other songs in the set list are favorites like "The Legend of Wooley Swamp," which Daniels explains he wrote about a place where he used to hunt as a kid, the obligatory "Long Haired County Boy" and the patriotic tearjerker "In America," intro'd by Daniels' remembrance of the day Pearl Harbor was bombed (remember he's 78) and his recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. Covers of two Bob Dylan songs are included, no surprise since the CDB's Off the Grid album from 2014 was entirely a Dylan tribute record, and Charlie also honors Johnny Cash with a reading of "Folsom Prison Blues." Daniels steps out of the spotlight for "Black Ice," a song he wrote specifically to showcase the rest of the band, but the show is all his when he picks up the acoustic guitar for a solo turn at the gospel chestnut "How Great Thou Art." But as previously stated, the show ends with a fiddle fest, and big hit "The South's Gonna Do it (Again)" leads into the finale.

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