Lynyrd Skynyrd- Vicious Cycle

Vicious Cycle

This album rocks from start to finish. There`s the usual Skynyrd Southern rock sound, but also heavy metal fans, like myself, will love this. Some of the guitar riffs on here are pretty bloody heavy. I was a bit skeptical at first when Skynyrd reformed with a different singer, but i can now confirm that the new Skynyrd line up is just as good, if not better, than the line up from the 70s. These guys have never made a dull album since they started. And you`d think with age they`d mellow a bit, but, no, their new material is great hard rock sounding music. The guitar work is also fantastic with great lead breaks. For the Skynyrd fans who also like the band`s more softer songs, don`t worry, there`s some great ballads on here as well. Overall, one of their best albums. Long live Lynyrd Skynyrd. Ricky Medlock's voice and guitar work are very noticeable on this album. red, White and Blue is a great song.

Rick Medlocke

Rick Medlocke

Rick Medlock & Gary Rossington

Rickey Medlocke (born February 17, 1950) is an American musician best known as the frontman/guitarist for the southern rock band Blackfoot and, more recently, as a guitarist for Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Being of Blackfoot ancestry, Medlocke was inducted into the Native American Music Hall of Fame in 2008. Rickey Medlocke was born on February 17, 1950, in Jacksonville, Florida. He was raised by his paternal grandparents. His grandfather, Shorty Medlock,was a well-known delta blues musician and he taught his grandson to play a miniature banjo. Medlocke started performing onstage at age three, and his musical abilities increased over the years. He began teaching himself to play the guitar by age five and playing drums in Shorty's band at age eight. Over the next several years Medlocke mastered the banjo, guitar, drums, mandolin, dobro and keyboards. He had a melodic singing voice and had taught himself to sing and play guitar at the same time. After graduating high school, Medlocke formed his first band, Blackfoot, where he was lead vocalist and lead guitarist.
Medlocke grew up with the founding members of Lynyrd Skynyrd. When Blackfoot failed to show substantial momentum for Medlocke. He was never actually a member or even asked to join Skynyrd by Ronnie Van Zant.He very briefly played the drums and sang lead on a few songs for them in 1970; "White Dove", "Ain't Too Proud to Pray", "The Seasons", and You Run Around. Sometimes, Medlocke played alongside the band's original drummer Bob Burns but came to desire the energy of a guitarist at the front of the stage. This resulted in his 1971 decision to reform Blackfoot. The band began touring incessantly, producing hit songs that included two written by his grandfather: "Train Train" and "Highway Song", amongst songs written by others, until he finally decided to disband the group in the early 1990s.

For a while in the 1990s, Medlocke thought about pursuing other careers(he mowed yards for a living) until he received a phone call in 1996 from Gary Rossington inviting him to rejoin Lynyrd Skynyrd as a lead guitarist and primary songwriter. Rossington asked Medlocke if he remembered how to play "Free Bird", "Tuesday's Gone", and "Workin' For MCA", among others. Medlocke rejoined Skynyrd and has been a member since. Occasionally, Medlocke will step away from Skynyrd briefly to join musicians like Shooter Jennings on stage. He joined American Idol finalist Bo Bice on stage for a rendition of "Sweet Home Alabama" when the top three finalists from season four returned home.

Blackfoot

Blackfoot

Blackfoot

 Blackfoot is an American Southern rock musical ensemble from Jacksonville, Florida organized during 1970. Though they are primarily a Southern rock band, they are also known as a hard rock act.[1] The band's classic lineup consisted of guitarist and vocalist Rickey Medlocke, guitarist Charlie Hargrett, bassist Greg T. Walker, and drummer Jakson Spires.
They've had a number of successful albums during the 1970s and early 1980s, including Strikes (1979), Tomcattin' (1980) and Marauder (1981).
By late 1975, the group was living back in Gainesville, Florida. During 1977 they communicated with Black Oak Arkansas' manager, Butch Stone, who hired them as the backing group for one of his clients, Ruby Starr, who had been a backup singer for Black Oak but was now becoming self-employed. After the stint with Ruby ended during 1978, they met Brownsville Station manager Al Nalli and his partner Jay Frey, who got them a contract with the company Atco Records.

Blackfoot Strikes, produced by Al Nalli and engineered by Brownsville Station drummer Henry Weck, was recorded in Nalli's basement studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan and was completed by January 1979. It was destined to be the band's most commercially successful effort. The song "Train, Train", written by Rickey's grandfather, "Shorty" Medlocke, became their first success and best known song. "Highway Song" proved to be another success for them later that year.

The group toured frequently during 1979; late during the year they opened for the band The Who at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan while developing their next album, Tomcattin, which was released during 1980. They went on to release the album Marauder during 1981 and Highway Song Live during 1982.