Blackfoot

Southern Rock at its toughest and speediest, Blackfoot came out of Jacksonville, Florida on the heels of more popular bands like the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd, the latter with whom founding member Rickey Medlocke used to play with.

Classic line-up:
Vocals/Guitars: Rickey Medlocke
Guitars: Charlie Hargrett
Bass: Greg T. Walker
Drums: Jakson Spires.


Blackfoot kinda made up their own lingo with a lot of their songs: "Reckless Abandoner", "Fire Of The Dragon", "Left Turn On A Red Light." They play tight, they play fast and there's a ton of hollerin' and whoopin' and bellerin' in almost every song. Think Lynyrd Skynyrd, whom I also love, but with dumber, more muscular songs. This music is such a perfect soundtrack for driving fast and doing Rockford turns out of parking lots that when I listen to it, it almost makes me angry that I'm not driving the General Lee, or at the very least, a mildly souped-up Camaro. To put it another way, I drive a big red Chevy pickup with 31 inch tires and flat-black "deer guard" on the front and I STILL don't think it's enough of a Redneck vehicle to properly honor a songs like "Diary of a Workingman" and "Dry County" (which contains the lyric I kick myself everyday for not working into one of my own songs: "the sign says liquor in the front, baby, and poker in the rear!").

Another huge bonus is that on 90% of the albums, there's at least one song that has a harmonica or banjo intro part played by Rickey Medlocke's father, Shorty Medlocke, who was a serious bluegrass musician. Shorty will mumble something about hound dogs or rattlesnakes or trains through the last of his front teeth, play a couple of bars and then be summarily crushed by the pounding drumbeats of "Dr. Jakson Thunderfoot" Spires. I'll comment further on how I love of the use of nicknames in bands later on, but let me say that Thunderfoot was a well deserved nickname for a drummer of Spires' caliber. I think he might have pounded those skins a little to hard though, as he died in 2005 of a brain aneurysm at the age of 53.

Blackfoot were not a horribly ugly band physically, but the individual member's stage clothes were, ahem, "studies in contrast" to say the least. Spires and Walker took to showcasing their American Indian heritage by wearing armbands, buckskins and moccasins, while Charlie Hargrett usually looked like he parked his Kenworth rig outside the venue and Rickey Medlocke, though only half Indian, preferred a combination of black Stetsons and long blue coats that made you think he should be a Georgia pimp named Vanilla Bean. The 80's didn't treat Southern Rock well, and when the genre died, Blackfoot's look was probably one of the reasons that MTV threw them in the coffin first. Fuck MTV.

I've read one review where the critic refered to their music as "unassuming garbage lifted from the dustbin of routine by its slobbering lack of fashion sense." Enough said.

--(Greg P.)