Ten Favorite Southern Rock Songs: The Ballad of Curtis Loew (#5)

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After a moment to thank God to hear from teamfreak and know that he said he's okay and will be back soon, I'm ready to give you another song from my list of favorite southern rock songs. And, at this point, I'm going to throw out a teaser: in all the time I've been doing these countdown lists I've never used one artist twice in a series. That's going to change with this one. Just sayin'.... And here's today's song. #5: The Ballad of Curtis Loew - Lynyrd Skynyrd This song resonated with me because there were a couple of country songs with a similar theme: "The Year That Clayton Delaney Died" by Tom T. Hall, and "Catfish John" by Johnny Russell. Hall's song was about "the best guitar picker in our town;" while Russell's song was about a kid hanging around with a former slave against his mom's wishes. Put the themes together, and you have this spectacular Lynyrd Skynyrd song. Inspired from the childhood musicians that Ronnie Van Zant would see around his neighborhood, "The Ballad of Curtis Loew" is about a kid who enjoys the blues the man played on his dobro so much he'd go collect soda bottles and turn them in at a local store for the deposit money (I suppose I need to explain that reference: soda used to come in bottles, and when you bought a soda you paid a nickel deposit for the bottle; and, once you returned the bottle you got your nickel back), which he would then give to Curtis in exchange for a day of music. The ten-year-old's mother objected ("momma used to whip me but I'd go see him again"), but as any music lover will tell you, the music is worth the effort. What a great tribute to the power of music. The Ballad of Curtis Loew Written by Allen Collins and Ronnie Van Zant Recorded by Lynyrd Skynyrd From Second Helping, 1974 The finest picker to ever play the blues: