It is a Saturday afternoon and I have just walked into a thrift shop. There is a bin there with some vinyl records and I always look through them. There was a record there that I hadn't seen before. The band was called Wet Willie with the title Which One's Willie. Unfortunately, the cover was not in the best condition, let's say quite damaged, but you know that you can come across that at a thrift shop. The many records that are brought from the attic and often sold for next to nothing. Still, I wanted to take the record if the vinyl looked reasonable. I took the record out of its sleeve and, surprisingly, it was in pretty good shape. I suspected that this record might be from the 70s. I took it with me and when I got home I checked on the internet which place it was from and by whom. And of course I immediately put it on and listened. I found it surprisingly nice. It is Southern Rock what i hear but a little bit more soul in the songs than country or bluesrock of bands like The Allman Brothers. I decided to look into the music style a bit more and found out that this rock group also belongs to the Southern Rock music style and fits in the list of names such as The Outlaws, Molly Hatchet, Blackfoot. How nice, because I did know The Outlaws and Blackfoot and also have albums by them. By the way, I also scored Molly Hatchet albums the last time I was at the vinyl fair. But what exactly is Southern Rock?

In the 50's the musicstyle rock and rock 'n roll came up such like Little Richard and Elvis Presley. In the 60s and 70s, you could hear the music style Southern Rock. Southern Rock was a music style characterised by a mixture of different styles, such as rock, blues, honkytonk, soul, boogie woogie, psychedilic rock, rock'n roll and country music from the south of America, mainly from Jacksonville. The music consists of singing and electric guitar playing. The Allmann Brothers were one of the first to use this style of music in their songs in 1969 also in Jacksonville. Later more followed such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Outlaws, Wet Willie , The Doobie Brothers, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, ZZ-Top, Molly Hatchet and Blackfoot. Creedence Clearwater Revival who became by far the most famous band in those years with this style of music. In the 1980s you hardly heard this style not so often anymore.

During the 90s the Southern Rock influcence came back with bands like The Black Crowes, Pearl Jam R.E.M., The B-52's, and Drive By Truckers.
In 2000 Kid Rock came up with the southern music tunes as well and his music was inspired by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Bands like Nickelback and Default also put the southern sound into their music. Later in the year of 2000's bands are made rockmusic like garage rock, blues rock and mixed it with southern music tunes. Bands such like the American Indie rockband Kings of Leon came up with different styles of rock and roll in their music.

List of Southern Rock Songs

The Allman Brothers Band - Ramblin Man
The Black Crowes - Hard To Handle
The Doobie Brothers - China Grove
Lynyrd Skynrd - Sweet Home Alabama
Molly Hatchet - Gator Country
Kid Rock - Cowboy
The Marshall Tucker Band - Can't You See
The Outlaws - Green Grass & High Tides
Wet Willie - Keep On Smiling
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Southern Accents
Marshall Tucker Band - Heard It In A Love Song
ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed Man
Creedence Clearwater Revival - I Put A Spell On You 

 In 1969, the Southern Rock band Wet Willie was formed. Wet Willie originated from Alabama and in 1970 they continued under the name Wet Willie, after the band had previously carried the name Fox. The band consisted of five members and later they added backing singers and named it The Willieties. In 1974, they released the song Keep On Smilin which became a big hit. In 1977, the group changed line-ups with some of the band members and moved to another record company. The song Weekend from the album Which One's Willie was released on single but did not become a big hit. In 1980 the band split up. In 1990 the band was re-formed with three old band members and three new ones.