Gov't Mule's sound is a throwback to the '70s heyday of Southern rock, and their style is peppered with references to the best of the Allmans, with a liberal dose of early ZZ Top thrown in for good measure. Their second album shows no signs of a sophomore slump, featuring playing and songwriting every bit as strong as their debut outing. Warren Haynes' guitar work, if anything, is even more adventurous this time around, particularly effective on the opener "Blind Man in the Dark," "Thelonius Beck," and "Birth of the Mule."

Hard rock quartet Gov't Mule emerged at the height of the jam band scene's emergence into the mainstream during the mid-'90s. They have played thousands of shows and been through many changes during that time – some of them excruciatingly painful. The death of founding bassist Allen Woody in 2000 was so profound a loss that they didn't replace him with any one bassist for three years. Keyboardist Danny Louis came aboard in 2002; a year later, bassist Andy Hess was hired on and remained for five more years. Since 2008, Jorgen Carlsson has held down the chair. Bring on the Music: Live at the Capitol Theatre not only acknowledges the band's anniversary but pays homage to their greatest asset: fans.

For its first live album since the fatal 1977 plane crash, Lynyrd Skynyrd drafted a few friends to sit in as guest artists, including former Dixie Dregs guitarist Steve Morse, fiddle wizard Charlie Daniels, and former Marshall Tucker Band guitarist Toy Caldwell, who contributes some of his unique thumb-picking guitar work to the J.J. Cale tune "Call Me the Breeze." Johnny VanZant, younger brother of the late Ronnie VanZant, steps forward as lead singer, and even pulls in his other brother Donnie of .38 Special to sing along, and Artimus Pyle proves that he still has what it takes to provide the backbeat for one of the South's most enduring legends. While Southern by the Grace of God may not match the intensity of One More from the Road, it still delivers some excellent Southern jamming, pairing a few of the South's best-loved musicians with one of the world's legendary rock & roll bands.

From the opening sound of a rattlesnake rattle, it is obvious that the newer members of Lynyrd Skynyrd are stepping out of the shadows and into the limelight where they belong. After all, Rick Medlocke, the "rattlesnake rocker" was himself a powerful frontman for his band Blackfoot in the '70s, while Hughie Thomasson performed the same duties for the Outlaws. On Edge of Forever, both Medlocke and Thomasson are heard with their individually unique guitar sounds.

This is, perhaps, the one. Derek Trucks has been on an aesthetic quest for something since he began his own recording career in 1997 – apart from his membership in the Allman Brothers Band. Each record has gone further into establishing Trucks not only as a slide guitar wizard (that happened when he was still in his teens), but also as a serious songwriter, fine arranger, and bandleader. The Derek Trucks Band, as evidenced by the release of 2003's Soul Serenade, is a unit – a band – whose core has been together for eight years. They create an atmosphere, a sound, a musical sense of place and community.

Digitally re-mastered deluxe edition of this 1982 album from Southern Rocker Johnny Van Zant, brother of Ronnie (Lynyrd Skynyrd) and Donnie (.38 Special). Last of the Wild Ones was the JVZ Band's third studio album and finds the them returning to a more authentic sound, a style in keeping with their highly praised debut album, paying less heed to commerciality and more attention to traditional 70s style southern rock. It also marked the return of veteran producer Al Kooper, a man who not only discovered, signed and produced Skynyrd but also sat behind the recording desk of the debut JVZ Band album. Sharper, more concise and rougher around the edges than their second album, Last of the Wild Ones takes no prisoners, leaping out of the speakers all guns blazing. With brother Donnie co-writing half the album, this is truly a joining of forces and a serious statement of intent.

The younger brother of Ronnie (Lynyrd Skynyrd) and Donnie (38 Special), Johnny sent five albums of his own to the pop charts between 1980 and 1990. Skynyrd's live soundman Kevin Elson produced Round Two, which charted in June of '81. This smokin' slab of Southern rock includes Drive My Car; Night Time Lady; Yesterday's Gone; Play My Music; Keep Our Love Alive, and more!

Lynyrd Skynyrd's 2000 compilation All Time Greatest Hits suffers from the same ailments that plague many compilations of its time, but there is one problem in particular that hurts it: instead of offering all of the "all time greatest hits" on one disc, the compilers pulled their punches, overlooking a few big songs while occasionally substituting live or acoustic versions for the original studio versions. That means that this is a Skynyrd compilation without the famed original recording of "Free Bird" – a live version is here instead. It doesn't really matter that it's a good version, taken from 1976's One More from the Road, or that the live version actually charted in the Top 40; nor does it matter that "All I Can Do Is Write About It" is a good acoustic version originally released on the eponymous 1991 box set, because this is a collection made for a general audience. It should, therefore, have the versions that a general audience knows best. Apart from that, and the usual nitpicking over songs that should have been included ("Workin' for MCA," "Don't Ask Me No Questions," etc.), this remains a solid collection, containing most of the Skynyrd material that a casual follower could want.

Street Survivors appeared in stores just days before Lynyrd Skynyrd's touring plane crashed, tragically killing many members of the band, including lead singer and songwriter Ronnie Van Zant. Consequently, it's hard to see Street Survivors outside of the tragedy, especially since the best-known song here, "That Smell," reeks of death and foreboding. If the band had lived, however, Street Survivors would have been seen as an unqualified triumph, a record that firmly re-established Skynyrd's status as the great Southern rock band. As it stands, it's a triumph tinged with a hint of sadness, sadness that's projected onto it from listeners aware of what happened to the band after recording. Viewed as merely a record, it's a hell of an album. The band springs back to life with the addition of guitarist Steve Gaines, and Van Zant used the time off the road to write a strong set of songs, highlighted by "That Smell," "You Got That Right," and the relentless boogie "I Know a Little." It's tighter than any record since Second Helping and as raw as Nuthin' Fancy.

A sort of a sequel to Gatemouth's 1974 Cajun country & western cowboy album Down South in the Bayou Country, the originally issued Bogalusa Boogie Man consists of 12 tracks performed in more or less that same vein. "Bogalusa Boogie Man" was recorded in Bogalusa, LA, during March of 1975, almost exactly one year after Bayou Country. Material for this project was composed by Danny Morrison, Red Lane, Hoyt Garrick, David Craig, Jerry Hubbard, Pat Rush, Fred Martin, and Little Feat founder Lowell George, whose "Dixie Chicken" features "vocals by everyone around in the studio, including friends and neighbors and the one and only Woody Lee Lewis." George is said to have singled out this version as his all-time favorite.