Blackfoot classic rock band

I played Strikes until it was beyond help. I saw them live. I wouldn't say they never made it. Your observations speak more to the overall, long term success of southern rock as the 70s faded.

Train Train was HUGE among 14 yr olds in Alabama when it came out.

Fox chase is a classic

wore this shite out in HS


Howdy folks, this is your old buddy Shorty Medlocke
I'd like to tell you about an old bunch of fox hounds I got
Ole Ring, and Ole Tige and Ole Rover
And when we start out across them Georgia hills a-huntin'
And them foxes sound something like this
Ooooh, ooh, ooh, git it sic em, catch it
Get em Ring, ooooh, ooh, ooh

I was introduced to Southern rock beyond the common AOR radio staples by the other guitarist in the variety band in which I played in college, back in the late 1980s.

We played Skynyrd and I liked it, but I LOVED when we played "Train Train" and especially "Wishing Well" and "Gimme Gimme Gimme." Blackfoot was heavier than their peers, and that younger Rickey had a swagger on stage and in his guitar playing that was just perfect for the band, and absolutely infectious to me.

Easy to imagine my delight when some Carondelet pickups found their way into Rickey's present-day Skynyrd guitarsenal a few years ago. That "don't meet your heroes" thing was so non-applicable in Rickey's case, he is one of the nicest guys on the planet. Bucket list check.

Strikes went platinum. They were plenty popular but they just didn't have enough good albums to get huge. Plus there was a good amount of competition from Molly Hatchet, ZZ Top, Ted Nugent, Allmans, Marshall Tucker, Mountain, Foghat, 38 Special. And then the 80s hit and the bluesy southern rock got replaced by the heavy metal of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motorhead, Dio, Quiet Riot, etc.

quote:

---

Train Train was HUGE among 14 yr olds in Alabama when it came out.

---

have a sad/funny story about that song

in my highschool days in Baldwin Co. AL, i played with a guy named Robbie, he was in the class behind me - we were pretty close, used to do a lot of underage drinking

about my senior year, my musical tastes drifted more towards punk/new wave, while he stuck with southern rock

although he had the attitude, he never was much of a guitarist, just didn’t have the chops - but he could play a pretty mean harmonica, so much so he ended up getting a spot in a southern rock band that was just starting out

they got a big gig at a music festival in Orange Beach/Gulf Shores, he was really pumped about it - he was gonna be featured in their cover of “Train, Train”

i missed seeing their performance, but a friend of my brother’s was there and I asked him how it went

he shook his head sadly and said, “man, it was going great, the band sounded awesome, the crowd was digging it - then, when they played “Train, Train”, Robbie stepped up to the mic for his big solo - and as he blew his first note, his harmonica fell completely apart. It was awful, poor bastard stood there in shock.”

the odds of a harmonica going into rapid spontaneous disassembly are infinitesimally small - but on that day, i learned that its still a nonzero probability event

In the middle ...

Had the pleasure of setting up their dressing room (trailer) at a local show back in the day- Nice guys RIP drummer Jackson Spires