A Jam of HIstorical Proportions - Soapbox Jr.
Though it began as a live recording session to record two live tracks for the band’s upcoming ‘Fire on the Mountain’ album, it became something much more, an event in its own right, a ‘happening,’ so much so that it became a mostly annual event from 1974 off and on through 1996, and then revived in 2015.
Throughout the decades, the guest list could almost take up the entirety of this Soapbox, but it has included such diverse and dynamic entertainers as Billy Joel, George Thorogood and the Destroyers, B.B. King, Great White, Roy Acuff, Woody Herman Orchestra, Willie Nelson, Tanya Tucker, The Marshall Tucker Band, Carl Perkins, The Judds, Allman Brothers Band, Leon Russell, Amy Grant, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Pat Boone and James Brown.
And that’s just scratching the surface.
But at the very heart of the show was the fact that it was the CDB’s homecoming show, and when the band took the stage, the energy went off the charts as what would eventually balloon to over 17,000 fans experiencing Dad and his band in their home town.
We would love to be able to offer more of these performances by guest artists at the Jams but there are a lot of legal rights complications when dealing with multiple artists.
But, on a more positive note…
Recently, an opportunity arose for us to make some of the CDB’s classic VolJam performances available for the very first time, including a couple of very special historical moments.
On August 7, 2026 StarVista Music will release “The Best of the Charlie Daniels Band Volunteer Jam” on all streaming platforms.
We combed through the CDB archives to find some of the best of the best, and things that had never been available to the fans… until now.
This collection has been painstakingly put together from DAT tapes and reel-to-reels we have had in storage for decades.
The engineering and mastering of this project were nothing short of miraculous.
The performance of “Orange Blossom Special” is stellar, and featured one of my favorite arrangements of the classic song with Dad’s signature fiddle work,Tommy Crain’s masterful guitar, Jam guests from Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Jerry Mills on mandolin and John McCuen plucking the banjo and the Grand Ole Opry’s Stoney Mountain Cloggers kicking up their heels, however, there was about 20 seconds or more of ear-piercing microphone feedback which had to be dealt with.
If we had the multi-track tape to work with, we could have fixed it pretty easily, but these were reel-to-reel tapes and DAT copies of reel-to-reel tapes. Generally, once it’s been recorded, and mixed down to two tracks, you’re stuck with what you have.
However… technology has come a long way.
After initially believing we’d have to find another performance from another Jam, our engineer tried a filter to see if the feedback could be reduced significantly.
Well, it wasn’t reduced.
It was eliminated completely.
I could not have been more shocked. I had to listen to it again thinking that I had to have skipped past it while reviewing it in sections, but a full listen confirmed that the feedback was completely gone.
I’ve never seen anything like it.
Many of the tracks had their own issues, “The Legend of Wooley Swamp” sounded a bit “muddy” but some EQ brought it back to sounding crisper.
We also had trouble finding the best CDB cover of “Can’t You See.” The song had been previously released on the ‘Volunteer Jam VII’ album on Epic Records in 1981, but we decided to include a “best of both worlds” performance with the CDB performing, and vocals carried out by Toy Caldwell from 1987’s VolJam XIII. In Toy’s words “Yeah! It sounds like a Volunteer Jam now!” as he started picking the opening notes of the song he wrote and sang when he was with The Marshall Tucker Band.
It’s a very special performance and I’m thrilled to finally be available instead of only to be heard as low-quality audio version on YouTube.
But the true gem of the package is the first track which isn’t just the first track of the album, it’s also the very first live performance of a little song from Volunteer Jam V in 1979.
The historic nature of VolJam V can’t be overstated. This was the very first Jam appearance by Lynyrd Skynyrd, to be more precise, the surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd. This was almost a year and three months since the crash, and the spirit of Ronnie Van Zant and the others lost when the band’s plane went down in Mississippi as the survivors joined the CDB on stage for a unique arrangement of “Call Me The Breeze” with CDB keyboard player, Taz DiGregorio, singing lead and then the first instrumental performance of “Free Bird.”
The spotlight operator added to the tribute by putting a spotlight on the empty microphone stand where Ronnie would have stood to sing Southern Rock’s most recognizable anthem.
In addition to the CDB/Skynyrd set, Jam V also gave us the first performance of the band’s soon-to-be signature song, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” So, this was a seemingly no-brainer to include, but it wasn’t that simple.
I remembered that Dad’s Blue Hat Records label had released a digital only version of the CDB set from Jam V, but curiously, “TDWDTG” was not included.
After some digging and a conversation with the engineer who originally worked with the Jam V transfer back in 2007 it seems that the reel was in such bad shape that there was concern about it being destroyed completely and it would also take more effort to preserve the track than they had anticipated, so it was left alone.
I had some discussion with StarVista’s Russ Zavitson. Russ is an accomplished producer working with several major artists over the years like The Wilkinsons, The Kinleys and Michelle Wright, and he said that we can try to bake the reels (to preserve what we have) and then try transferring after the bake.
That proved to be easier said than done. The magnetic particles on the tape shed onto the playback heads when the tape has deteriorated as badly as this had.
Multiple transfers were started, then paused so that the heads could be cleaned, then started again and again in a seemingly endless cycle until they finally had something that could be reassembled and properly preserved.
For what it is, it sounds good. I don’t mean the recording; the recording came out great after all the effort.
I mean the performance itself.
It’s an obviously rough first time out for the song which had only been recorded about a month earlier. Dad hadn’t gotten the phrasing down, he flubbed a line or two, but you could tell there was something magical about the performance, warts and all.
And that magic was not lost on the crowd either, who reacted as if it was already one of the band’s biggest hits.
Often when a performer says that they are going to play a new song, it’s often met with groans and people start heading to the nearest bathrooms or concessions stands until the familiar songs are being, but anyone who left the crowd for beers or potty breaks missed out on a historical moment.
Fans around the globe will finally be able to properly experience the first live performance of the iconic “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” on April 10 when it will be released on all major streaming platforms.
I am thrilled that this is one the first of many CDB-related projects that are finally seeing the light of day, the other being The Legend of Charlie Daniels stage show.
And there’s much more to come in 2026.
There have been times since Dad left us in 2020 that I have felt like I’ve been spinning my wheels trying to keep his legacy going. What I thought were almost no-brainers like a documentary about Dad’s life and a book of my writings about Dad, his music and the grieving process have proven to be more elusive, but we finally started making progress in 2025 with many of the projects fittingly being realized in 2026.
Why is 2026 so significant?
Well, to be honest, I hadn’t realized the significance until not long ago, and then it hit me.
October 28, 2026 will mark what would have been Dad’s 90th birthday.
So, we’re not far from entering the tenth decade of Charlie Daniels’ life and legacy.
This collection will hopefully pave the way for more from the CDB vaults taking us well into that 10th decade of the man and his legacy.
As always, I’m taking a cue from the man himself and making the day count.
And Dad was known to say at a Volunteer Jam, “Ain’t it good to be alive and be in Tennessee!”
Let’s all make the day count!
Pray for our troops, our police, the Peace of Jerusalem and our nation.
God Bless America!
- Charlie Daniels, Jr.
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