Soap Box

*NOTE* Charlie will be back with a brand new soapbox on Monday, in the meantime, here's a rewind from 2014 about the 40th anniversary of the 'Fire on the Mountain' album. - TeamCDB

Forty years ago this December, the CDB released what would ultimately be our first gold, and then platinum album called Fire On The Mountain.

I've had a lot of milestones in my career but none more meaningful than this 1974 release, which is unique in a lot of ways.

It was the catalyst for the Volunteer Jam, we wanted to do two live tracks on the album and booked a show at the 2,200 seat War Memorial Auditorium in a Nashville on a given Saturday night in October to do the live recording and I casually invited some of my musician buddies to drop by for a jam session. After we got the business took care of, somebody came up with a play on words for the Volunteer State of Tennessee, the Volunteer Jam, and we were off and running.

The Allman Brothers and the Marshall Tucker Band were both hot as a firecracker in Nashville and Dickey Betts from the Allmans, Toy Caldwell, Jerry Eubanks and Paul Riddle from Tucker were in town and when I brought them on stage, unannounced, the place went nuts.

The show sold out that very first year and it was apparent that this Volunteer Jam thing was a "happening." So the next year we moved it to the 13,000-seat Murphy Center, which also sold out in advance and a true Southern institution was born.

Fire On The Mountain immediately started getting airplay around the country and that was back in the day of the album-oriented rock radio stations and if they liked an album they may play two or three cuts from it.

“The South’s Gonna Do It Again” and “Long Haired Country Boy” surfaced as radio favorites and Wade Conklin from Kama Sutra records presented us with our very first gold album on the stage of the second Volunteer Jam in 1975.

The album raised the profile of the band in America and started getting some attention in other countries and our touring schedule started filling up with meaningful show dates. We crisscrossed the country opening for Marshall Tucker, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Joe Walsh and even a couple of dates with the Rolling Stones.

It brought us to the attention of Ron Alexenburg at Epic Records who offered us a firm six-album deal with his personal commitment to move our career along, a promise which he kept in spades.

We were offered meaningful television appearances and industry media interviews, all of which are part of building a solid career

Fire On The Mountain has sold somewhere between four and five million albums over the past forty years (due to an agreement that allowed Kama Sutra to keep selling the record for several years - TeamCDB) and the amazing thing is that some of those 40-year-old songs are still some of our most requested.

A generation of fans that weren't even born when Fire On The Mountain was released are now requesting “Long Haired Country Boy” and “The South’s Gonna Do It Again”.

So here's to Fire On The Mountain, 40 years after the fact, still going strong, the songs still being performed nightly by the CDB wherever we happen to be around the world

And here's a big bear hug and a heartfelt "thank you" to all the fans who have kept that candle burning for four decades.

We truly love you every one.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem.

God Bless America

— Charlie Daniels

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