By Debbie Gardner
debbieg@thereminder.com
“Sometimes I don’t know where the song is going to go. You start out and the middle may change, the end may change. You just kind of follow your star, you point it where you want to lead and let it take you there.”
Southern rock icon Charlie Daniels was talking about songwriting, but the 77-year old performer could just as easily have been talking about his career.
From the early days when he co-wrote “It Hurts Me” – recorded by Elvis Presley in 1964 – and sat in as substitute studio guitarist on Bob Dylan’s 1969 “Nashville Skyline” album to his first hit with the 1973 “Uneasy Rider” followed by 1979’s “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” the Grammy, Dove and multiple Country Music award winning artist has always followed his own dream.
That dream, from a young age, was to entertain people.
“Sometimes I think I was born with a desire to perform,” Daniels said during a late-July interview with PRIME from Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he and his band were headliners at the River Spirit Casino.
“When I would go to see performers – sometimes someone would come to our little town [of Gulf, Chatham County, North Carolina], not a famous name, just someone performing – I just loved that ambience about being on the stage and entertaining people,” he said. “I learned a few chords on the guitar and from that point on I wanted to entertain.”
Daniels brings that love of performing to Western Massachusetts on Sept. 18, when he and his band take the Court of Honor Stage at 8 p.m. on the opening night of the Big E’s 2015 run. The concert is free with that day’s admission to the fair.
“I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to play something that I created for people,” Daniels said. “It’s a blessing that God gave me that I can make a living doing something that I enjoy so much.”
His opening night show, Daniels added, will be all about entertaining his fans.
“We always do “Devil Went Down to Georgia,” “Long Haired Country Boy” and “Legend of Wooly Swamp,” he said “But we have some new songs. We mix it up a bit.”
Among those new tunes may be cuts from Daniels’ 2014 release –“Off the Grid – Doin’ It Dylan.” The all-acoustic album, inspired by the original song Daniels wrote for an episode of AMC’s western series, “Hell on Wheels,” pays homage to the iconic performer whom Daniels said was a major influence on a young studio musician.
“He wanted you to interpret his music the way that you did it. Nobody stood there telling you how to play this riff or that riff,” Daniels recalled.
It was a kind of creative freedom that later became a hallmark of Daniel’s performing style, right down to today’s concerts.
“We do a thing where we feature everybody in the band – even the drummer. People love it,” Daniels said. “We throw a lot of stuff that you don’t hear with every band,” he added. That includes trying to put their songs in order and chatting with the audience.
When it comes to choosing songs for a concert, Daniels said he just “plays them all.” After more than 40 years of singing and songwriting, he really doesn’t have a favorite tune when he takes the stage.
“I’ve been asked that quite a bit and I’ve had reason to ponder it,” Daniels said.
“I don’t look at it as individual songs, I look at it as an hour and a half of music,” he continued. “You’re bringing the audience through emotional highs and lows [and] I try to mix it up but of course, play the [fans’] favorites.”
Beyond the stage
Many of those fan favorites, are Daniels’ story-songs. And though they aren’t the only types of writing he’s known for – he pens an opinion blog for his website, www.charliedaniels.com, and he’s published both a book of short stories and a novel – it’s musical storytelling with which he’s made his mark over the years.
“Songwriting,” Daniels said, “is a God-given talent. You kind-of think of an idea and you go where it takes you.”
Sometimes, like “Devil Went Down to Georgia,” they take you to a hit. Other times, they take you to a dead end, or another song.
“Back in 1962 I was sitting on a city bus in El Paso, Texas, and I started doing a song about Pancho Villa,” Daniels said. “I could never finish it, I could never find a way to finish the story.
“Fourteen years later I wanted to finish a song about Billy the Kid [and] it worked with the melody started and the lines I started with Pancho Villa,” he explained.
“You never throw anything away,” Daniels said, adding that if something doesn’t “bear fruit” at this moment, it might at another time.
He’s also used his stardom to bear another type of fruit, the kind that raises awareness of the sacrifices made by our men and women in the military. He traveled to entertain troops at bases in Iraq in 2006, and penned a new song to honor those who served, “Iraq Blues” in 2010. Moreover, he has actively spoken out about the need for more support for returning troops who are trying to reenter life at home.
In 2014, that desire to help our returning vets led Daniels in a new direction.
With long-time manager David Corlew, former Country Music Association CEO Ed Hardy, and Copperweld CEO Joe Longever and his wife Mercedes, Daniels co-founded a non-profit organization, The Journey Home Project, designed to help connect donors with the services that can do the most good for returning vets. Right now the organization focuses most of its efforts in Nashville.
“We try to help them adjust to civilian life,” Daniels said of the connections his organization is fostering. ‘It’s not always an easy thing to do. Sometimes its hard for people to walk out of a combat zone, get on a plane and in a few days you are walking on the street at home.”
Daniels said Journey Home is not unique – “there are a lot of organizations that do that” – but that the non-profit is part of the many groups trying to help supplement government services
One of Journey Home’s focus points is on connecting vets with funds for college courses and training that will help them find a job.
Sometimes, though, Daniels said its just about helping a vet who doesn’t have any furniture at least get the basics he needs to live.
“As we all know we can’t depend on the Federal government to the degree it needs to be,” Daniels said, “It’s up to the private sector to jump in and fill the void.”
